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This  Book  is  the  Property  of 

FRANCES  BARR 

IT'S    CONTENTS    TREAT     OF 


/o 


Myths  and   Legends 

of 
Our  New  Possessions 

Second  Edition 


mf  insf: 
chk.  done 
file 


•s 


-'-)     9  O  ^2  ?  "-ary 

•   California 

Bancroft  Lfcrwy  W'THDRAWN 


OUR  new  territories  have  many  legends,  for 
among  unbookish  people  tradition  takes  the 
place  of  history,  and  myth  of  knowledge.  Yet 
Spain,  by  rooting  out  everything  that  disagreed  with 
her  religion,  has  obliterated  much  of  the  aboriginal 
lore  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  the  Philippines.  It 
was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  their  myths  should 
survive  exterminated  races.  A  contrast  to  the 
recent  Spanish  possessions  is  offered  by  Hawaii,  a 
little  kingdom  in  which  the  preservation  of  hero 
talcs  and  symbolic  narratives  has  been  an  honorable 
employment  for  a  class  not  unlike  that  of  the  an- 
cient bards  of  European  countries,  and  of  our  new 
subjects — our  brothers,  let  us  rather  say — the  Ha- 
waiians  are  the  only  ones  who  have  formulated 
these  ancient  stories.  The  book  ascribed  to  King 
Kalakaua  is  especially  rich  in  the  folk-lore  of  the 
islands.  v 

When  one  begins  to  collate  legends  a  sure  sur- 
prise awaits  him  at  an  early  stage  in  his  researches. 
It  is  the  discovery  of  beliefs  that  are  strikingly 
similar,  one  to  another,  in  spite  of  the  seeming 
dissociation  of  the  tribes  among  whom  they  are 
found.  We  place  the  ark  on  Ararat,  but  there  arc 
9 


Introduction 

Ararats  in  the  Sierras,  in  Alaska,  in  Hawaii,  in  the 
Philippines.  It  sets  us  a-thinking  when  we  find 
Noah  in  a  Hawaiian  myth,  and  there  called  Nuu ; 
when  we  learn  of  the  white  god  of  Mexico  who 
is  to  return  and  free  his  people,  for  which  reason 
houses  in  the  southwest  are  still  built  with  doors 
opening  toward  the  sunrise,  that  the  faithful  may 
see  him  early  when  he  advances  out  of  the  East,  to 
which  he  went  so  long  ago.  We  have  forgotten  all 
we  never  knew  about  the  people  who  first  recounted 
the  deluge  legend,  but  everywhere  we  hear,  among 
primitive  tribes,  of  floods  that  covered  the  globe, 
of  a  chosen  one  who  survived  the  cataclysm  and  re- 
peopled  the  earth,  restoring  to  it,  also,  the  serpents, 
birds,  and  quadrupeds  that  he  had  saved  from  the 
waters.  How  much  more  dramatic  and  portentous 
are  these  records  than  the  possible  beginning  of  the 
story  in  some  local  freshet ! 

Eden  is  in  both  hemispheres.  Sodom  has  been 
destroyed  on  both  continents.  Helen  is  not  alone 
of  Troy,  but  of  Molokai  and  California.  Coming 
to  a  later  time,  we  find  our  dear  old  Rip  Van  Winkle 
to  be  only  the  phantom  of  an  earlier  personage. 
The  man  who  fell  asleep  among  the  hills  and  awoke 
to  find  himself  and  the  world  grown  old  is  at  home 
in  Germany  and  the  Orient  and  on  our  Western 
plains,  quite  as  well  as  in  the  mountains  of  our  Hud- 
son ;  yet  we  refuse  to  yield  his  place  to  any  proto- 
type, and  insist  that  Rip  shall  inhabit  our  Catskills. 

Primitive  people  are  like  the  Greeks  in  their  faith 
10 


Introduction 

in  nature  spirits.  For  the  red  man,  or  the  yellow 
man,  the  dryad  haunts  the  wood  as  surely  as  she 
haunted  the  groves  of  Tempe  ;  for  him  the  skies  roar 
the  wrath  of  gods,  as  they  did  when  Jove  hurled  his 
bolts  and  Vulcan  beat  with  his  hammer,  or  as  Thor, 
the  Thunderer,  wrought  in  a  later  theogony ;  for 
him  the  voice  of  the  stream  at  the  fall  of  night  tells 
secrets  of  the  past  and  speaks  hope  for  the  future,  as 
it  did  when  the  voice  came  from  the  lips  of  a  nymph 
in  Hellas  ;  for  him  sirens  sing  in  the  sea  and  Undine 
smiles  from  the  mist  of  the  cascade ;  for  him  the 
sun  is  still  Apollo,  the  swift,  the  beautiful,  the  life- 
supporting,  the  life-taking ;  for  him  the  moon  still 
walks  the  night,  watching,  defending,  loving.  In 
brief,  the  difference  between  the  Sioux,  or  the  Ta- 
galog,  and  the  Greek  is  one  of  external  civilization. 
In  both  we  find  the  same  tendency  to  soften  facts 
into  symbols,  to  personate  and  typify.  The  natural 
language  of  the  savage  is  poetry.  The  thought  of 
a  people  that  aspires  to  see  beyond  the  shell  of  things 
is  poetic.  Let  us  refrain  from  destroying  or  deriding 
ideals  that  are  better  than  nine  in  ten  of  our  com- 
monplaces. It  cannot  hurt  us  to  live  in  a  fairy  age  a 
little  longer, — to  keep  away  from  the  screech  of 
trains,  the  jar  of  factories,  the  bawling  of  hucksters, 
the  agonizings  of  mendacious  journals,  for  a  few  still 
precious  years.  It  is  better  worth  our  while  to  learn 
how  the  wolves  drew  Passaconaway  on  his  throne 
of  furs  across  the  frozen  wastes,  how  from  the  sum- 
mit of  Mount  Washington  his  sledge  arose  flaming 
ii 


Introduction 

up  to  heaven,  shining,  star-like,  till  it  vanished  in 
the  deeps,  than  to  laboriously  inform  ourselves  con- 
cerning the  House  vote  on  a  tariff  amendment  or  the 
dates  on  which  the  Prussians  and  Austrians  fell  afoul 
of  one  another  in  a  war  that  never  concerned  us.  It 
is  as  fine,  as  ethical,  as  the  translation  of  Moses. 

Are  these  likenesses  in  legend  due  to  a  paucity  of 
plots  and  combinations,  such  as  limit  the  makers  of 
plays  and  novels  to  a  dozen  or  fifteen  outlines  ?  It 
may  be.  Yet,  even  in  detail,  some  of  these  stories 
are  oddly  alike.  Indeed,  there  are  certain  tales  from 
which  there  is  no  escape.  Wherever  you  go  you 
find  a  bottomless  pond,  a  haunted  house,  a  lovers' 
leap.  Probably  there  are  a  hundred  of  these  leaps  in 
this  one  country  of  ours,  though  of  one  of  them  the 
only  story  is  that  of  a  man  who  tumbled  over  and 
lost  his  jack-knife.  Until  we  know  what  sort  of 
vine  it  was  on  which  Jack  the  Giant  Killer  climbed 
to  the  skies,  and  what  gave  the  cerulean  tint  to  Blue- 
beard's whiskers,  we  shall  ask  in  vain  why  lovers 
should  take  so  difficult  a  leave  of  us  as  was  required 
in  scaling  these  crags,  using  teeth  and  nails  in  the 
ascent,  usually  with  the  family  of  the  adored  one 
clambering  after  and  trying  to  dissuade  them, — this 
as  a  preliminary.  One  would  think  it  would  be  easy 
for  the  leaper  to  let  go  before  he  reached  the  top, 
and  save  work,  even  if  he  had  no  consideration  for 
his  elders  who  are  toiling  and  perspiring  behind  him. 
But  no  :  he  always  keeps  on  to  the  summit,  or  she 
does,  or  both  do,  and  sing  a  death-song  or  make  a 

12 


Introduction 

few  remarks  respecting  the  brevity  of  life  and  the 
hardness  of  parents  ;  then,  just  as  the  stern  father 
calls  from  below  that  he  will  not  oppose  their  union 
any  longer  if  he,  or  she,  or  they  will  return  and  be 
forgiven,  or  spanked,  they  step  over  the  brink  and 
alight  on  his  face,  to  his  great  annoyance.  There 
are,  however,  too  many  tales  of  lovers'  leaps  that 
have  the  sound  and  meaning  of  truth  to  be  disre- 
garded. At  least  once  in  this  year  of  grace  1899 
we  have  the  enactment  of  their  tragedy.  One  ridi- 
cules only  such  as  are  invented  by  hotel  proprietors 
to  fit  some  cliff  near  their  hostelry,  or  by  wandering 
penmen  who  seek  to  heighten  the  interest  of  a  tale  or 
history  that  is  otherwise  bare  of  it.  To  thousands 
the  mere  sight  of  a  precipice  hints  at  the  fearfulness 
of  a  fall  from  its  brink,  and  out  of  the  stimulus 
which  the  fancy  thus  receives  the  tale  of  the  lover's 
leap  may  be  evolved. 

Another  incident  has  come  to  notice  in  several 
parts  of  the  world.  It  is  the  adventure  in  a  cave 
that  has  its  entrance  under  water.  This  cave  is  a 
hiding-place  for  lovers,  or  a  place  of  concealment  for 
captured  or  runaway  maidens,  or  a  resort  of  conspir- 
ators who  are  keeping  out  of  sight  of  the  authorities. 
Caves  of  this  kind  appear  in  the  legends  of  many 
lands,  and  in  this  volume  one  such  legend  relates  to 
Porto  Rico,  another  to  Hayti,  and  two  to  Hawaii. 
Except  in  the  symbolic  tale  of  "  The  Lady  of  the 
Twilight,"  they  sound  like  stories  that  commemorate 
events,  rather  than  disguises  for  natural  phenomena, 
13 


Introduction 

and  the  events  are  possible.  Let  us  believe  they 
are,  at  any  rate,  if  thereby  we  enrich  imagination 
with  a  moment  of  romance ;  and  let  us  be  thankful 
to  the  barbarian  that  he  has  not  reduced  his  life  to 
the  gray,  unsoftened  state  of  the  oracle  who,  from 
his  throne  on  the  cracker-barrel  in  the  corner  gro- 
cery, proclaims  against  the  wickedness  of  plays  and 
novels  because  they  are  not  true.  As  if  moral  truth 
and  truth  of  character  were  not  of  more  account 
than  truth  of  fact !  Religion,  which  has  been  a 
force  for  the  moral  lift  of  the  race,  is  in  all  nations 
a  traditionary,  not  a  historical  or  scientific,  inheri- 
tance, and  so  with  half  our  laws  and  all  our  customs. 
Why  all  this  to-do  to  prove  that  Pocahontas  did  not 
save  John  Smith  ?  that  William  Tell  never  existed  ? 
He  did  exist,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Swiss ;  he  exists 
to-day  in  every  land  of  woods  and  mountains ;  and, 
blessings  on  him !  he  always  will  exist,  though  con- 
ventions of  spectacled  doubters  pass  resolutions  ad- 
vising him  that  he  mustn't.  Indeed,  though  we  have 
seen  interesting  denials  of  William  Tell,  most  of  us 
as  willingly  believe  in  him  at  this  moment  as  ever 
we  did  in  our  lives.  The  race  clings  to  its  legends 
fondly.  It  will  not  discard  them  so  long  as  they 
stand  for  truths  of  Nature  and  of  human  nature. 


of  ffiontente 


f  n  tbc  Caribbean  PAGB 

The  Mysterious  Islands 23 

The  Buccaneers 33 

The  Boat  of  Phantom  Children 46 

Early  Porto  Rico 48 

The  Deluge 55 

How  Spaniards  were  Found  to  be  Mortal 56 

Ponce 58 

Water  Caves 6l 

How  a  Dutchman  Helped  the  Spaniards 65 

The  Ghost  of  San  Geronimo 67 

Police  Activity  in  Humacao 71 

The  Church  in  Porto  Rico 74 

The  Mermaids 78 

The  Aborigines 83 

The  Caribs      88 

Secret  Enemies  in  the  Hills 92 

Sacred  Shrines 98 

Tobacco 103 

The  Two  Skeletons  of  Columbus 106 

Obeah  Witches 108 

The  Matanzas  Obeah  Woman 113 

How  Havana  Got  its  Market 121 

The  Justice  of  Tacon 127 

The  Cited 133 

The  Virgin's  Diamond 141 


Table  of  Contents 

Hn  tbe  Caribbean— (Continued)  PAGB 

A  Spanish  Holofernes 144 

The  Courteous  Battle 150 

Why  King  Congo  was  Late 153 

The  Chase  of  Taito  Perico 156 

The  Voice  in  the  Inn 163 

1Tn  tbe  ipacfffc 

Finding  of  the  Islands 177 

Ancient  Faiths  of  Hawaii 178 

The  Giant  Gods 188 

The  First  Fire 189 

The  Little  People 190 

The  Hawaiian  Iliad 194. 

The  Hawaiian  Orpheus  and  Eurydice aoi 

The  Rebellion  of  Kamiole 206 

The  Japanese  Sword 212 

Lo-Lale's  Lament 217 

The  Resurrections  of  Kaha 220 

Hawaiian  Ghosts 224 

The  Three  Wives  of  Laa 225 

The  Misdoing  of  Kamapua 226 

Pele's  Hair 233 

The  Prayer  to  Pele 234 

Lohiau  and  the  Volcano  Princess 237 

A  Visit  of  Pele 239 

The  Great  Famine 243 

Kiha's  Trumpet. 248 

How  Moikeha  Gained  a  Wife    • 252 

The  Sailing  of  Paao 254 

The  Wronged  Wife 256 

The  Magic  Spear 259 

Hawaiian  Witches 262 

The  Cannibals 267 

16 


Table  of  Contents 

In  tbc  pacific— (Continues)  rAGB 

The  Various  Graves  of  Kaulii 270 

The  Kingship  of  Umi 473 

Keaulumoku's  Prophecy 276 

The  Tragedy  of  Spouting  Cave 277 

The  Grave  of  Pupehe 483 

The  Lady  of  the  Twilight 285 

The  Ladrones a86 

Old  Beliefs  of  the  Filipinos 290 

Animal  Myths 300 

Later  Religious  Myths  and  Miracles 304 

Bankiva,  the  Philippine  Pied  Piper 315 

The  Crab  Tried  to  Eat  the  Moon 317 

The  Conversion  of  Amambar 319 

The  Bedevilled  Galleon I'll 

Two  Runaways  from  Manila 329 

The  Christianizing  of  Wong 333 

The  Devil's  Bridge 335 

The  Great  Earthquake 339 

Suppressing  Magic  in  Manila 345 

Faith  that  Killed 348 

The  Widow  Velarde's  Husband 351 

The  Grateful  Bandits 352 


Illustrations 

GATE  or  THE  WALLED  CITY  or  MANILLA     .    .  Frontitpicce 

A  CUBAN  RESIDENCE Page     146 

DOWN  THE  VALLEY  CAME  POURING  A  FLOOD  or 

LAVA "       232 

AVENUE  or  PALMS,  HAWAII "       a6a 


Caribbean 


21 


tfje  OtarHrtean 


THE    MYSTERIOUS   ISLANDS 

QOMEWHERE— anywhere— in  the  Atlantic, 
O  islands  drifted  like  those  tissues  of  root  and 
sedge  that  break  from  the  edges  of  northern  lakes 
and  are  sent  to  and  fro  by  the  gales  :  floating  islands. 
The  little  rafts  bearing  that  name  are  thick  enough 
to  nourish  trees,  and  a  man  or  a  deer  may  walk 
on  them  without  breaking  through.  Far  different 
were  those  wandering  Edens  of  the  sea,  for  they 
had  mountains,  volcanoes,  cities,  and  gardens  ;  men 
of  might  and  women  lovelier  than  the  dawn  lived 
there  in  brotherly  and  sisterly  esteem ;  birds  as 
bright  as  flowers,  and  with  throats  like  flutes,  peo- 
pled the  groves,  where  luscious  fruit  hung  ready  for 
the  gathering,  and  the  very  skies  above  these  places 
of  enchantment  were  more  serene  and  deep  than 
those  of  the  storm-swept  continents.  Where  the 
surges  creamed  against  the  coral  beaches  and  cliffs 
of  jasper  and  marble,  the  mer-people  arose  to  view 
and  called  to  the  land  men  in  song,  while  the  fish  in 
the  shallows  were  like  wisps  of  rainbow. 

It  was  the  habit  of  these  lands  never  to  be  where 
the  seeker  could  readily  find  them.     Some  legends 


Myths  and  Legends 

pertaining  to  them  appear  to  do  with  places  no  far- 
ther from  the  homes  of  the  simple,  if  imaginative, 
tellers  than  the  Azores,  Canaries,  and  Cape  Verdes  ; 
but  others  indicate  a  former  knowledge  of  our  own 
America,  and  a  few  may  relate  to  that  score  or  so 
of  rocks  lying  between  New  England  and  the  Latin 
shores ;  bare,  dangerous  domes  and  ledges  where 
sea  fowl  nest,  and  where  a  crumbling  skeleton  tells 
of  a  sailor  who  outlived  a  wreck  to  endure  a  more 
dreadful  death  from  cold  and  thirst  and  hunger. 
Some  of  these  tales  reach  back  to  the  Greek  myths  : 
survivals  of  the  oldest  histories,  or  possibly  con- 
nected America  with  the  old  world  through  voyages 
made  by  men  whose  very  nations  are  dead  and  long 
forgotten ;  for  the  savages  and  ogres  that  inhabited 
these  elusive  islands  may  be  European  concepts  of  our 
Indians.  But  in  the  earlier  Christian  era  all  was  mys- 
tery on  those  plains  of  water  that  stretched  beyond 
the  sunset.  It  was  believed  that  as  one  sailed 
toward  our  continent  the  day  faded,  and  that  if  the 
mariner  kept  on  he  would  be  lost  in  hopeless  gloom. 
Perhaps  the  most  ancient  story  in  the  world  tells 
of  the  sinking  of  Atlantis.  When  the  Egyptian 
priest  told  it  to  Solon  it  was  already  venerable  be- 
yond estimate ;  yet  he  recounted  the  work  and 
pleasures  of  the  Atlantans,  who  were  a  multitude, 
who  drank  from  hot  and  cold  springs,  who  had 
mines  of  silver  and  gold,  pastures  for  elephants,  and 
plants  that  yielded  a  sweet  savor ;  who  prayed  in 
temples  of  white,  red  and  black  stone,  sheathed  in 
24 


In  the  Caribbean 

shining  metals ;  whose  sculptors  made  vast  statues, 
one,  representing  Poseidon  driving  winged  horses, 
being  so  large  that  the  head  of  the  god  nearly 
touched  the  temple  roof;  who  had  gardens,  canals, 
sea  walls,  and  pleasant  walks  ;  who  had  ten  thou- 
sand chariots  in  their  capital  alone;  the  port  of 
twelve  hundred  ships.  They  were  a  folk  of  peace 
and  kindness,  but  as  they  increased  in  wealth  and 
comfort  they  forgot  the  laws  of  heaven  ;  so  in  a  day 
and  a  night  this  continent  went  down,  burying  its 
millions  and  its  treasures  beneath  the  waters.  A 
few  of  the  inhabitants  escaped  to  Europe  in  their 
ships  ;  a  few,  also,  to  America.  It  has  been  claimed 
that  Atlantis  may  still  be  traced  in  an  elevation  of 
the  ocean  floor  about  seven  hundred  miles  wide  and 
a  thousand  miles  long,  its  greatest  length  from  north- 
east to  southwest,  and  the  Azores  at  its  eastern  edge 
— mountain  tops  not  quite  submerged.  As  some  be- 
lieve, it  was  from  this  cataclysm  that  has  sprung  the 
world-wide  legend  of  a  deluge. 

From  some  of  the  enchanted  lands,  perhaps  near 
the  American  shore,  Merlin  went  to  England,  piled 
the  monoliths  of  Stonehenge  on  Salisbury  moor, 
and  after  gaining  respect  and  fear  as  a  magician  and 
prophet,  sailed  back  across  the  waste.  The  Joyous 
Island  of  Lancelot ;  the  island  where  King  Arthur 
wrestled  and  bested  the  Half  Man  ;  Avalon,  the 
Isle  of  the  Blest,  where  Arthur  lived  in  the  castle 
of  the  sea-born  fairy,  Morgan  le  Fee,  were  probably 
near  the  British  or  Irish  coasts. 
25 


Myths  and  Legends 

Many  day  sv  sail  from  Europe  was  the  Island  of 
Youth.  A  daring  Irish  lad  reached  it,  borne  by  a 
horse  as  white  as  the  foam,  that  never  sank.  He 
paused  on  the  way  to  slay  a  giant  who  held  a 
princess  in  his  enchantment,  and  reached,  at  length, 
a  land  where  birds  were  so  many  that  the  trees 
shook  with  the  burden  of  them,  and  the  air  rang 
with  their  song.  There,  with  his  wife  and  a  merry 
band  of  youths  and  maids,  he  spent  a  hundred 
years — one  long  joy  of  killing ;  for  from  dawn  till 
dark  the  deer  met  death  at  his  hand,  bleeding  from 
the  stroke  of  dart  and  knife.  A  floating  spear  was 
found  near  the  shore  one  day,  rusted  and  scarred 
with  battle,  and  as  he  grasped  it  memories  of  old 
wars  returned  to  him,  so  that  he  was  sick  with 
longing  to  go  home  and  hurl  the  cutting  metal 
through  the  ribs  of  his  enemies  and  see  the  good 
red  flood  burst  from  their  hearts.  He  remounted 
his  white  steed  and  reached  Ireland,  careless  of  the 
happiness  he  had  left :  for  those  who  deserted  the 
island  might  never  return.  He  reached  his  home 
to  find  men  grown  too  small  and  mean  to  fight  him, 
which  probably  means  that  he  had  waxed  so  great 
as  to  make  them  seem  like  dwarfs.  Appalled  at 
this  change,  dismayed  at  the  loss  of  all  chance  for 
battle,  he  sank  to  the  earth.  His  age  came  sud- 
denly upon  him,  and  he  died. 

In  one  of  the  great  Irish  monasteries  lived  St. 
Brandan,  of  the  holy  brotherhood  that  tilled  the 
soil,  taught  the  permitted  sciences,  copied  and  il- 
26 


In  the  Caribbean 

lumined  the  works  of  the  early  Christians,  fed  four 
hundred  beggars  daily,  though  living  on  bread, 
roots,  and  nuts  themselves,  lodging  and  studying  in 
unwarmed  cells  of  stone.  Once  in  seven  years  the 
people  saw  from  shore  the  island  of  Hy-Brasail.  The 
monks  tried  to  stop  its  wanderings  by  prayer  and  by 
fiery  arrows,  yet  without  avail.  Kirwan  claimed  to 
have  landed  on  it,  and  he  brought  back  strange 
money  that  he  said  was  used  by  its  people.  So  late 
as  1850  Brasail  Rock  remained  on  the  British  Ad- 
miralty chart,  to  show  how  hard  tradition  dies.  The 
appearance  of  this  phantom  land  made  Brandan  long 
to  explore  the  realm  of  mystery  wherefrom  it  had 
emerged.  He  hoped  to  find  even  the  Promised 
Island  of  the  Saints,  when  at  last  he  was  able  to 
leave  the  convent  where  he  had  endured  so  many 
hardships  and  embarked  on  Mernoc's  ship  ;  blessed 
region  where  fruit  was  borne  on  every  tree,  flowers 
on  every  bush  ;  region  strewn  with  precious  stones 
and  full  of  perfume  that  clung  to  one's  garments  for 
weeks,  like  an  odor  of  sanctity. 

Seventeen  priests  set  sail  in  the  coracle,  or  boat 
of  basket  work  covered  with  leather.  They  had 
no  fear,  for  they  were  holy  men,  and  in  those  days 
Christians  were  immune  from  peril.  Not  long 
before  a  company  of  nuns  had  been  blown  across 
the  sea  and  back  again,  seated  on  a  cloak  that  rode 
the  waves  like  a  ship.  After  forty  days  Brandan's 
company  found  a  group  of  islands  peopled  by 
courteous  natives.  Next  they  disembarked  on  what 
27 


Myths  and  Legends 

they  thought  to  be  a  rock  to  cook  a  dinner,  but  it 
was  no  rock ;  it  was  a  whale,  that,  feeling  the  sting 
of  flame  through  his  thick  hide,  rushed  off  for  two 
miles,  carrying  their  fire  on  his  back.  They  hastily 
re-entered  their  boat  before  the  monster  had  gained 
much  headway  and  ere  long  reached  the  Paradise 
of  Birds,  where  they  enjoyed  the  music  made  by 
thousands  of  little  creatures  with  their  wings — a 
music  like  fiddling.  After  this  came  visits  to  a  den 
of  griffins;  to  a  land  of  grapes  such  as  the  Norse- 
men told  about ;  to  a  mountain  country  aflame  with 
the  forges  of  one-eyed  people,  or  cyclops.  Twice, 
on  Easter  Sunday,  they  put  lambs  to  death,  and  so, 
being  blessed  for  the  sacrifice,  were  allowed  to  reach 
the  Island  of  Saints,  where  an  angel  bade  them  take 
all  the  precious  stones  they  wished,  as  they  had 
been  created  for  holy  people,  but  to  attempt  no  ex- 
ploration beyond  that  point.  No  men  appeared ; 
still,  in  order  to  leave  the  impress  of  their  calling, 
St.  Malo,  one  of  the  company,  dug  up  a  giant  who 
had  died  several  years  before,  preached  to  him  and 
baptized  him.  These  reformatory  services  revived 
the  giant  a  little,  though  he  was  pretty  far  gone,  and 
he  died  again  as  soon  as  the  priest  stopped  preach- 
ing. St.  Brandan  went  back  to  Clonfert,  where 
three  thousand  monks  joined  him  in  good  works, 
and  mendicants  swarmed  from  all  over  the  land  to 
benefit  by  their  labor.  He  often  told  the  people 
and  the  brethren  of  the  wonders  he  had  seen  in 
lands  Columbus  was  to  rediscover  nine  hundred 
28 


In  the  Caribbean 

years  later,  and  he  dwelt  with  marvelling  on  the 
mercy  of  God  as  shown  to  Judas  Iscariot,  the  be- 
trayer of  Christ,  who  was  encountered  in  the 
northern  seas,  lying  naked  on  an  iceberg  in  silent 
delight.  St.  Brandan  recognized  him  by  portraits 
he  had  seen  and  hailed  him.  Judas  then  told  his 
story  ;  he  was  roasting  in  hell  when  the  Lord  re- 
membered that  once  in  Joppa  this  disciple  had 
thrown  his  cloak  over  the  shoulders  of  a  leper 
who  was  agonized  by  a  wind  that  blew  sharp  sand 
into  his  sores.  An  angel  was  sent  to  tell  the  doomed 
one  that  for  this  mercy  he  would  be  allowed,  for 
one  hour  in  every  year,  to  breathe  the  wholesome 
air  of  the  upper  world,  and  stretch  his  scorched 
body  on  the  ice.  Moved  by  this  tenderness 
toward  the  most  despised  of  men,  St.  Brandan 
bowed  and  prayed,  just  as  Judas,  with  despair  in 
his  upturned  face,  slipped  down  again  to  the  deeps 
of  fire. 

Some  men  of  Ross,  Ireland,  had  killed  their 
king,  despite  his  successful  wars  against  his  rival 
monarchs,  some  of  whose  kingdoms  were  as  large 
as  a  township.  For  this  offense  the  heir  to  the 
throne,  or  his  advisers,  decreed  that  sixty  couples 
should  be  set  adrift  on  the  ocean,  to  meet  what  fate 
they  might.  A  guard  was  put  along  the  shore  to 
keep  them  from  landing  again,  and  an  easterly  gale 
blew  them  quickly  out  of  sight  of  their  relatives 
and  friends.  For  years  none  dared  to  seek  for  them. 
Conall  Ua  Corra,  of  Connaught,  had  prayed  in 
29 


Myths  and  Legends 

vain  to  the  Lord  for  children,  so  in  anger  he  prayed 
to  the  devil,  and  three  boys  were  born  to  his  wife. 
The  neighbors  jeered  at  them  as  the  fiend's  off- 
spring, and  harassed  them  and  made  them  bitter. 
They  said,  one  to  the  other,  "  If  we  are  really  sons 
of  Satan  we  will  justify  these  taunts,"  and  collect- 
ing all  the  vicious  boys  of  their  village  they  robbed 
farmers,  ruined  churches,  killed  men  who  resisted 
plunder,  and  were  about  to  murder  their  father 
when  they  were  warned  in  a  vision  of  the  eternal 
punishment  they  would  endure  in  blazing  sulphur 
pits  if  they  did  not  repent.  Their  father  had  long 
regretted  his  hasty  prayer  to  the  evil  one,  and  had 
tried  to  regain  the  good-will  of  heaven  by  industry, 
and  by  giving  freely  of  his  substance  to  the  sick  and 
pauperized.  By  advice  of  St.  Finnen,  to  whom 
they  confessed,  the  boys  repaired  the  churches  they 
had  injured  and  mourned  the  victims  of  their  bru- 
tality ;  yet,  as  the  people  doubted  their  conversion, 
they  resolved  to  leave  the  country  and  go  to  some 
land  where  they  would  not  be  constantly  exposed 
to  the  danger  of  breaking  their  good  resolves  by 
reproaches  and  attacks.  Where  to  go  ?  It  was 
suggested  by  some  designing  neighbor  that  if  they 
were  to  search  for  the  one  hundred  and  twenty 
exiles  they  would  be  doing  a  service  to  heaven  and 
the  world.  This  suggestion  was  promptly  acted 
on.  In  a  frail  coracle  they  swept  the  sea,  discover- 
ing strange  lands,  in  one  of  which  the  half-forgotten 
people  of  Ross  were  found,  living  so  contentedly 
30 


In  the  Caribbean 

that  few  of  them  cared  to  go  back.  The  most  ex- 
citing incidents  of  the  voyage  were  the  three  meet- 
ings with  the  Island  of  Satan's  Hand,  a  lone  rock 
in  icy  waters,  where  fogs  always  brooded.  At  the 
will  of  a  malignant  demon  it  changed  its  place  from 
time  to  time,  and  it  was  the  hand  of  this  monster, 
a  vast,  rude  shape  looming  out  of  the  mist,  which 
endangered  all  the  ships  that  passed,  for  it  struck 
at  them, — as  it  did  at  the  coracle  of  these  three 
voyagers, — injuring  hulls,  tearing  sails,  or  knocking 
the  crews  overboard,  when  it  did  not  send  them  to 
the  bottom.  If  the  blow  fell  short  it  made  the  sea 
boil  and  sent  billows  rolling  for  a  mile.  Some  of 
the  shore  folk  said  it  was  icebergs  that  the  shipmen 
saw  ;  but  icebergs  never  sailed  so  far  from  the  pole, 
they  answered.  Despite  its  wandering  habit,  the 
map-makers  eventually  agreed  on  a  site  for  this  rock 
of  the  smiting  hand,  calling  it  Satanaxio.  It  can  be 
seen  on  charts  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

A  thousand  years  before  Columbus  it  was  reported 
that  tropic  islands  had  been  discovered  and  ruled  by 
Archbishop  Oppas,  of  Spain,  who  was  fain  to  leave 
his  country  because  he  had  betrayed  his  king  to  the 
Moors.  He  found  a  race  friendly  and  gentle, 
sharing  with  one  another  whatever  was  given  to 
them,  as  not  knowing  selfishness.  This  prelate 
burned  his  ships,  that  his  people  might  not  return, 
laid  off  the  largest  island  into  seven  bishoprics,  and, 
impressing  the  natives  into  his  service,  built  churches 
and  convents,  for  there  were  women  in  his  company 


Myths  and  Legends 

whom  he  placed  in  nunneries.  This  island,  which 
figures  on  early  maps  as  Antillia  and  as  Behaim,  was 
known  also  as  the  Land  of  the  Seven  Cities,  from 
its  seven  bishoprics.  When  Coronado  heard  of  the 
pueblos  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  he  may  have 
confounded  them  with  the  towns  of  Oppas,  and  to 
this  day  the  seven  cities  of  Cibola  are  a  legend  of 
our  desert.  Harold's  Norsemen  were  told  by  the 
wild  Skraelings  of  Maine  of  a  pale-faced  people 
farther  south,  who  walked  in  processions,  carrying 
white  banners  and  chanting. 

Near  Florida  was  the  island  of  Bimini,  with  its 
fountain  of  youth.  Juan  and  Luis  Ponce  de  Leon 
sought  it  vainly  among  the  Bahamas,  then  crossed  to 
Florida  and  kept  up  the  search  among  the  pine  bar- 
rens, the  moss-bearded  cypresses,  the  snaky  swamps, 
and  alligator  infested  rivers.  The  Indians,  strong, 
active,  healthy  with  their  simple,  outdoor  life,  their 
ignorance  of  wine  and  European  diseases,  seemed  so 
favored  that  the  Spaniards  believed  they  must  have 
bathed  in  the  magic  fountain  and  drank  its  waters. 
Green  Cove  Spring,  near  Magnolia,  is  the  one  where 
Luis  bathed,  hoping  that  he  had  found  at  last  the 
restorative  fountain ;  but  an  angry  Indian  shot  a 
poisoned  arrow  through  his  body,  and  neither 
prayers  nor  water  stayed  long  the  little  life  that  was 
in  him.  So  the  spring  is  in  the  unfound  Bimini, 
after  all. 


In  the  Caribbean 
THE    BUCCANEERS 

HOW  the  free  traders  in  the  West  Indies  be- 
came smugglers,  how  by  easy  stages  they 
passed  from  the  profession  of  illicit  dealing  to 
piracy,  are  matters  that  concern  history  rather  than 
lepend.  Their  name  of  buccaneers  comes  from 
buccan,  an  Indian  word  signifying  a  smoke-house, 
in  which  beef  and  other  meats  were  dried  ;  as  one 
of  the  earliest  enterprises  of  the  rovers  was  the 
stealing  of  Spanish  cattle  in  San  Domingo,  and  the 
drying  of  their  flesh  in  the  native  buccans  for  use 
at  sea. 

A  general  hatred  or  jealousy  of  Spain,  that  was 
shared  by  the  English,  Dutch,  and  French,  led  to  the 
first  privateering  expeditions.  Indeed,  throughout 
the  seventeenth  century  the  pirates  operated  princi- 
pally against  Spain,  and  were  tolerated  because  of  the 
injury  they  did  to  her  ships,  her  people,  her  prop- 
erty, and  her  trade.  Having  finally  ruined  her 
commerce,  they  sacked  her  colonies,  and,  the  lust 
for  blood  and  treasure  having  been  roused  to  a  sort 
of  madness,  they  cast  off  patriotic  allegiances  and 
became  mere  robbers  and  outlaws.  The  history  of 
the  successes  of  L'Ollonois,  Morgan,  Davis,  and  the 
rest,  is  an  exciting  though  painful  one,  inasmuch  as 
all  sense  of  right  and  mercy  seems  to  have  been 
crushed  in  the  breasts  of  these  men  by  their  brutal 
business.  For  a  handful  of  dollars  they  were  ready 
to  wreck  a  city,  reduce  even  its  ruins  to  ashes, 

3  33 


Myths  and  Legends 

slaughter  women  and  babes,  and  cut  the  throats  of 
the  aged.  They  were  as  harsh  and  treacherous 
toward  one  another  as  they  were  toward  peaceable 
men,  and  for  acts  of  rebellion  against  a  leader  they 
were  killed  off-hand,  while  it  was  customary,  also, 
to  butcher  a  sailor  whenever  a  chest  of  treasure  was 
buried,  and  place  his  body  on  or  in  the  chest,  that 
his  ghost  might  guard  it  and  terrify  intruders.  Yet 
the  ultimate  influence  of  the  buccaneers  was  for 
good,  inasmuch  as  they  wrested  a  part  of  the  rich 
Antilles  from  the  cruel  and  ignorant  Spaniard  and 
gave  it  to  more  enlightened  powers. 

When  the  freebooting  days  were  at  their  height 
there  was  no  harbor  of  safety  between  Rio  and 
Halifax  ;  but  there  was,  in  every  town  the  rascals 
visited,  an  element  that  profited  by  their  robberies : 
the  keepers  of  inns,  brothels,  and  gaming-houses, 
and,  lastly,  the  royal  governors.  These  bloody- 
fingered  varlets  would  sack  a  church,  get  tipsy  on 
the  communion  wine,  and  demand  the  blessing  of 
the  priests  on  the  next  enterprise  of  the  same  kind 
they  had  in  contemplation.  With  the  chalices, 
candlesticks,  and  altar  furnishings,  they  would  go  to 
the  nearest  city,  where  they  were  sure  of  finding 
this  friendly  element,  and  riot  away  the  last  piece 
of  metal  in  their  pockets  ;  or,  if  pipes  of  wine  were 
among  the  prizes,  any  island  would  serve  for  a  long 
debauch.  Devil's  Island,  the  place  of  Dreyfus' s 
captivity,  was  a  popular  rendezvous,  though  it  is  so 
named  not  because  of  these  gatherings,  but  because 

34 


In  the  Caribbean 

of    a  particularly    unmanageable    prisoner    who    was 
once  confined  there. 

The  governors  of  some  of  the  West  Indies  were 
as  keen  on  the  scent  of  the  sea-robbers  as  the  latter 
were  in  the  chase  of  merchant -men,  and  they  were 
unable  to  see  a  good  many  sad  goings-on  when  a  few 
pieces-of-eight  were  held  before  their  eyes.  Gaming 
was  no  disgrace  in  those  times,  nor  was  hard  drink- 
ing, nor  coarse  speech,  and  even  piracy  had  a  sort 
of  sanction  when  the  victims  were  people  of  a  nation 
with  whom  the  buccaneers  were  at  war.  Many 
tales  of  gamesters*  luck  are  told,  but  a  couple  will 
suffice.  Vent-en- Panne,  a  Frenchman,  had  received 
five  hundred  crowns  as  his  share  of  a  robbery,  and 
on  the  first  night  ashore,  at  Kingston,  Jamaica,  he 
staked  and  lost  it  all,  with  three  hundred  more  that 
a  reckless  comrade  had  lent  to  him.  Though  pen- 
niless, he  was  not  discouraged.  He  became  a  wine- 
drawer  and  pipe-lighter  in  the  tavern,  and  with  a 
few  pennies  received  for  tips  he  bet  on  the  cards 
again.  This  time  he  won,  and  his  fortune  mounted 
to  twelve  thousand  crowns.  With  this  amount  in 
hand  he  felt  he  could  be  virtuous,  so  he  took  ship 
for  home,  intending  to  settle  in  Paris  and  fulfil  the 
ambition  *of  every  honest  Frenchman, — to  own  a 
furnished  room,  fish  in  the  Seine,  and  hear  the  bands 
play.  He  got  only  as  far  as  Barbadoes,  for  at  that 
island  a  rich  Jew  came  aboard,  persuaded  him  to  play 
for  a  small  amount,  and  lost  everything  to  Vent-en- 
Panne, — money,  houses,  sugar,  and  slaves.  The 
35 


Myths  and  Legends 

fever  was  on  them  both,  however,  and  so  soon  as  the 
Jew  could  borrow  a  little  his  luck  also  turned,  and 
Vent-en-Panne  was  stripped  of  every  sou, — even  the 
clothes  he  wore.  Paris  became  an  iridescent  dream, 
and  the  gambler  found  his  way  to  the  Tortugas, 
where  he  doubtless  shipped  with  Morgan,  Teach, 
or  some  other  of  the  scourges  of  the  Spanish  main. 
Two  rovers  are  credited  with  beating  the  governor 
of  Jamaica  at  another  game,  after  they  had  lost  to 
him  a  matter  of  ten  thousand  crowns, — the  earnings 
of  several  weeks  faithfully  devoted  to  privateering. 
In  order  to  continue  the  game  (to  their  complete 
beggary),  the  fellows  had  borrowed  from  acquaint- 
ances in  Kingston,  who,  seeing  no  way  to  get  their 
money  back,  decided  to  have  them  imprisoned  for 
debt.  Hearing  of  this  plan,  the  elder  of  the  precious 
pair  reported  to  the  governor  that  he  had  a  negro 
whom  he  would  like  to  sell,  cheap,  in  order  to  pay 
his  debts  and  start  in  a  mechanic  trade,  such  as  he 
had  followed  in  years  gone  by.  The  governor  bade 
him  have  the  fellow  brought  in,  and  finding  him  to 
be  a  sturdy,  intelligent  man,  with  a  skin  as  black  as  the 
ten  of  clubs,  he  bought  him  and  set  him  at  work. 
Next  day  the  negro  had  disappeared.  I^otice  and 
offers  of  reward  were  sent  to  all  parts  of  the  island, 
but  nothing  came  of  it.  The  two  ex-pirates  fol- 
lowed a  peaceful  and  thriving  trade  of  making  keys, 
possibly  for  burglars,  and  in  a  few  years  had  saved 
enough  to  enable  them  to  return  to  England.  Be- 
fore sailing  they  called  on  the  ex  governor,  who  had 
36 


In  the  Caribbean 

drank  and  gambled  himself  into  poverty,  and  emp- 
tied a  fistful  of  gold  before  him. 

"  That's  for  the  nigger,  with  interest,"  said  one. 

"The  nigger?  What,  the  onevhat  ran  away  ?" 
asked  the  governor. 

"  Oh,  he  didn't  run  far.  Here  he  is."  And  the 
speaker  clapped  his  companion  on  the  shoulder. 
"  He  had  only  to  curl  his  hair  with  a  hot  iron  and 
rub  charcoal  on  his  chops  to  deceive  a  governor." 

The  tickled  old  fellow  drank  their  health  and 
wished  them  a  safe  journey,  out  of  Jamaica. 

While  luck  seemed  to  bide  with  the  rovers,  it  was 
not  always  smooth  sailing  on  the  Spanish  seas.  Now 
and  then  the  buccaneers  attacked  an  innocent  look- 
ing ship  that  waited  until  they  had  come  within 
musket  reach,  when  it  ran  up  the  Spanish  standard, 
opened  a  dozen  ports,  and  let  fly  at  them  with  hot- 
shot and  a  hail  of  bullets.  Now  and  again  a  mutiny 
would  occur,  and  the  victorious  either  forced  the  de- 
feated to  walk  the  plank  or  marooned  them  on  some 
desolate  sand  key  to  perish  of  thirst  and  sunstroke. 

Blackbeard's  men  once  found  a  fishing-vessel  drift- 
ing off  the  Burmudas  and  eagerly  boarded  her  to  look 
for  treasure.  In  a  minute  they  tumbled  out  of  the 
cabin  and  scrambled  into  the  sea  like  the  swine  pos- 
sessed of  devils.  The  vessel  had  but  one  living  man 
on  board,  and  he  had  not  many  hours  of  life  before 
him,  while  corpses  strewn  about  the  floor  were  spot- 
ted with  small-pox.  Half  of  the  pirate  crew  were 
slain  by  the  pestilence. 

37 


Myths  and  Legends 

When  Roberts  was  cruising  off  Surinam  a  sup- 
posed war-ship  bore  down  on  him  in  a  fog.  He 
pelted  her  with  all  his  guns,  but  she  kept  her  way- 
unheeding.  Tht  fog  then  breaking  showed  that  it 
was  not  a  frigate,  but  a  sloop,  which  had  been  mag- 
nified by  the  mist,  and  he  quickly  grappled  her  and 
sent  his  men  to  see  what  manner  of  ship  she  was. 
Ten  or  twelve  Spaniards  lying  about  the  deck  with 
their  throats  cut  proved  that  some  other  buccaneer 
had  been  before  him.  As  the  men  were  about  to 
leave  their  floating  charnel-house  to  hold  her  way 
whither  the  gales  might  send  her,  a  furious  swearing 
in  Spanish  caused  them  to  shiver  and  look  back. 
Were  the  dead  speaking  ?  Had  some  crazed  sailor 
escaped,  and  was  he  gibbering  from  the  roundtop  ? 
No  :  it  was  a  parrot  in  the  rigging,  and  he  was 
saying  all  he  knew. 

Montbar,  having  discovered  a  company  of  Span- 
ish on  one  of  the  Windward  Islands,  went  ashore 
with  guns,  knives,  and  axes,  and  destroyed  them  all, 
'except  one.  This  man  told  how  he  and  his  fellows 
had  been  put  ashore.  They  were  the  crew  of  a 
slaver,  and  were  on  their  way  from  Africa  to  Cuba 
with  a  cargo  of  slaves,  when  the  ship  began  to  leak 
badly.  The  carpenter,  accompanied  by  several  of 
the  more  intelligent  of  the  blacks,  made  a  careful  in- 
spection of  the  hold,  yet  could  find  no  leak  ;  so  the 
constant  inflow,  that  kept  all  hands  at  the  pumps, 
was  at  length  declared  to  be  the  devil's  work.  The 
slaves  wailed  and  wrung  their  hands,  the  captain 
38 


In  the  Caribbean 

swore  and  prayed,  the  crew  toiled  to  exhaustion. 
When  it  seemed  as  if  the  ship  could  not  float  for  an- 
other day  the  island  appeared  ahead,  and  quickly 
loading  arms,  provisions,  and  water  into  the  boats, 
the  Spaniards  abandoned  ship  and  left  the  negroes 
to  their  fate.  Great  was  their  surprise  and  dismay 
when  the  slaves  ran,  cheering,  over  the  deck,  hoisted 
all  sail,  and  squared  away  for  the  eastward,  the  vessel 
rising  higher  in  the  water  as  her  former  crew  sat 
watching  her.  These  blacks,  who  were  confined  in 
the  hold,  had  got  possession  of  knives  with  which 
they  cut  through  the  outer  planking,  causing  the  ship 
to  leak  alarmingly.  They  had  also  fitted  plugs  to 
these  leaks,  and  packed  them  with  oakum,  so  that 
when  the  carpenter  made  his  rounds  no  water  came 
in.  As  soon  as  he  returned  to  the  deck  the  holes 
were  opened  again,  for  it  was  known  that  the  An- 
tilles were  near,  and  the  scheme  to  frighten  their 
captors  to  land  was  successful.  These  facts  the  crew 
learned  from  the  negro  cook,  who  had  accompanied 
them  to  shore. 

The  devil,  who  was  supposed  in  this  case  to  have 
been  the  enemy  instead  of  the  ally  of  the  slavers, 
often  mixed  in  the  affairs  of  a  class  that  must  have 
filled  him  with  admiration.  Some  of  the  pirates 
are  reported  to  have  placed  themselves  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  the  foe  of  the  human  race,  swearing 
on  strange  objects  to  give  their  souls  to  him,  and 
formally  burying  a  Bible  on  shore  as  a  token  that 
they  were  through  forever  with  religion  and  mercy. 
39 


Myths  and  Legends 

Yet  they  were  a  superstitious  lot,  fearful  of  signs 
and  portents,  and  do  not,  therefore,  appear  to  have 
been  trusting  subjects  of  His  Satanic  Majesty. 
They  always  had  an  ear  and  a  coin  for  a  fortune- 
teller, and  early  in  the  eighteenth  century  there 
were  negroes  and  Indians  in  the  West  Indies  and 
the  tropic  Americas  who  openly  practised  that  trade 
and  art  of  witchcraft  for  which  their  white  brethren 
in  Salem  had  been  hanged.  Their  principal  cus- 
tomers were  pirates  and  buccaneers,  who  went  to 
them  for  a  forecast  of  fortune,  and  also  bought 
charms  that  would  create  fair  winds  for  themselves 
and  typhoons  for  their  enemies.  These  witches 
kept  open  ears  in  their  heads,  and  information  care- 
lessly dropped  by  the  outlaws  they  sold  for  an  after- 
math of  gain  to  the  Spaniards,  who  found  truth  in 
so  many  of  the  prophesies  that  they  respected  the 
soothsayers  and  fully  believed  that  the  English  were 
the  chosen  of  the  fiend. 

Among  the  most  trusted  of  the  witches  was  a 
withered  Indian  woman  of  Nassau,  the  capital  of  the 
Bahamas.  She  was  close  upon  her  fifth  score  of 
years  before  she  departed  this  life,  but  the  rumor 
that  she  had  lived  in  New  Providence  since  the 
flood  was  not  denied,  for  it  made  her  the  more  re- 
garded. Her  best  commodity  was  strings.  For  a 
large  price  she  would  sell  a  string  in  which  she  had 
tied  several  knots,  each  one  of  which  represented 
the  particular  wind  that  the  captain  might  wish  to 
prosper  him  on  his  way.  Captain  Condent  was  a 
40 


In  the  Caribbean 

blaspheming  corsair  from  the  wicked  town  of  New 
York,  who  had  left  that  port  as  quartermaster  on  a 
merchant-man  and  next  morning  had  appeared  with 
a  battery  of  pistols  and  had  calmly  taken  the  ship 
out  of  the  hands  of  her  officers.  This  fellow  had 
bought  a  string  from  the  witch  that  carried  him  to 
the  Cape  Verdes  and  back  to  America,  but  when 
he  had  cut  off  all  the  knots,  except  two  or  three, 
he  feared  that  he  might  run  out  of  winds  alto- 
gether ;  so  he  put  upon  certain  servants  of  the  Lord 
the  task  for  which  he  had  paid  the  servant  of  the 
devil.  He  had  with  him  two  or  three  Spanish 
monks  whom  he  had  stolen  in  the  Cape  Verdes, 
though  what  he  wanted  of  them  neither  he  nor  they 
could  have  guessed.  They  were  having  a  most  un- 
happy time  of  it.  Now  and  then  the  scallawag 
sailors  would  force  them  upon  all  fours,  and  sitting 
astride  their  backs  would  compel  them  to  creep 
about  the  deck,  pretending  to  be  horses,  while 
Condent  whipped  them  smartly  with  the  rope's 
end.  Thinking  to  save  his  precious  twine,  he  or- 
dered these  monks  to  pray  for  favoring  winds,  and 
he  kept  them  on  their  marrow  bones  petitioning 
from  daylight  until  sunset.  Often  they  would  fall 
exhausted  and  voiceless.  At  last,  believing  that  the 
wind  pedler  of  Nassau  had  more  power  over  the 
elements  than  a  shipload  of  monks,  he  threw  the 
wretched  friars  overboard,  and,  as  luck  would  have 
it,  the  wind  he  wanted  came  whistling  along  a  few 
minutes  after. 

41 


Myths  and  Legends 

He  came  to  the  end  of  his  string  at  Zanzibar, 
where  he  was  caught  in  a  tremendous  storm,  and 
was  in  hourly  peril  of  destruction.  His  masts  had 
cracked,  his  sails  had  split,  his  water  barrels  had 
gone  by  the  board.  It  was  time  to  hold  the  witch 
to  her  bargain.  He  swung  the  cord  about  his  head 
three  times,  called  the  woman's  name,  and  although 
eight  thousand  miles  of  sea  and  continent  lay  be- 
tween them,  she  heard  the  call.  The  string  was 
pulled  through  his  fingers  so  smartly  that  it  made 
them  burn,  and  was  whisked  out  of  sight  in  the 
wind  and  the  spray.  Within  an  hour  the  gale 
abated.  Next  day  Condent  attempted  to  make  his 
way  by  dead  reckoning,  but  whenever  he  went 
wrong  a  bird  flew  in  his  face,  and  a  ship  crowded 
with  skeletons  approached  him  in  the  mist.  He 
presently  gained  the  Isle  of  Bourbon,  or  Reunion, 
where  his  stealings  enabled  him  to  cut  such  a  figure 
in  society  that  he  married  into  the  family  of  the 
governor  and  died  in  an  odor  of — well,  maybe  it 
was  sanctity.  At  all  events,  he  died. 

It  was  a  witch  also  that  had  foretold  the  march 
of  the  buccaneers  across  Panama  isthmus,  and  her 
warning  was  considered  of  such  importance  that  the 
Spanish  troops  and  merchants  were  notified,  though 
they  made  but  a  feeble  resistance  when  the  foray 
actually  occurred. 

One  of  the  Spanish  slavers  bound  for  our  coasts 
was  overhauled  by  the  English  pirate  Lewis.  She 
was  a  fast  sailer  and  had  nearly  escaped  when  Lewis 
42 


In  the  Caribbean 

ripped  a  handful  of  hair  from  his  head,  flung  it  to 
the  wind,  and  shouted,  "  Ho,  Satan,  keep  that  till  I 
come."  Instantly  the  wind  rose  to  a  gale.  In  a 
few  minutes  the  Spaniard  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
pirates,  and  the  slaves,  being  only  an  encumbrance, 
were  tossed  overboard  to  the  sharks,  as  one  might 
fling  away  a  damaged  cargo.  One  of  the  black 
men  was  a  dwarf,  gnarly,  wrinkled,  misshapen, 
with  eyes  that  blazed  like  a  cat's  in  the  dark.  No 
sooner  had  this  man  been  pushed  over  the  side  than 
he  uttered  an  ear-splitting  yell,  and  seemed  to  bound 
back  to  the  deck.  It  was  a  cat,  however,  not  a 
human  being,  that  was  seen  to  rush  into  the  cabin, 
and  it  looked  into  Lewis's  face  with  the  same 
shining,  menacing  eyes  that  he  had  seen  in  the 
dwarf.  A  negro  boy  who  had  been  spared  to  act 
as  a  servant  for  the  captain  having  unconsciously 
roused  his  anger,  Lewis  rushed  upon  him  with  his 
sword,  cut  him  through  the  heart  and  beat  his 
corpse,  the  cat  sitting  by  and  squealing  with  glee  at 
the  sight.  When  a  mate  struck  at  the  animal  in  a 
sort  of  disgust  and  fear,  the  creature  leaped  at  him 
and  almost  blinded  him  with  its  claws.  From  that 
time  the  cat  became  Lewis's  familiar ;  was  before 
him  at  the  table,  on  his  pillow  when  he  slept,  on 
his  shoulder  when  he  gave  orders.  The  crew 
agreed  that  it  could  be  none  other  than  the  devil 
himself.  On  Lewis's  last  night  alive,  while  he  was 
quite  drunk,  the  cat  seemed  to  be  whispering  into 
his  ear.  He  arose  and  staggered  away,  saying, 
43 


Myths  and  Legends 

"  The  devil  says  I  shall  be  killed  to-night.'*  An 
hour  later  his  ship  was  boarded  by  French  pirates, 
and  Lewis  was  despatched.  After  scratching  the 
faces  of  nearly  all  the  enemy,  the  cat  ran  up  the 
mainmast,  throwing  off"  sparks  and  screeching, 
scrambled  to  the  end  of  the  topsail-yard,  and  leaped 
off  into  the  night. 

Morgan,  the  English  sea  robber,  had  captured  a 
number  of  Spanish  prisoners  in  Panama,  among 
them  a  woman  of  beauty  and  distinction,  who  had 
been  left  without  other  protection  than  that  of  a 
faithless  servant  during  her  husband's  absence  in 
Peru.  The  dignity  and  refinement  of  his  prisoner 
made  a  certain  impression  on  Morgan.  After  he  had 
put  to  sea  a  cabin  was  reserved  for  her,  she  was 
treated  with  respect  by  the  crew,  but  a  guard  kept 
her  in  sight  always.  The  gross  nature  of  the  pirate 
disclosed  itself  in  a  few  days,  when,  fresh  from  a 
debauch  and  reeking  with  the  odors  of  rum,  he 
forced  her  cabin  door  and  attempted  to  embrace  her. 
She  sprang  back  with  a  cry  of  loathing,  and  grasping 
a  dagger  swore  that  if  he  ever  intruded  himself  in 
her  presence  again  she  would  drive  the  weapon 
into  her  own  heart,  since  she  could  never  hope  to 
reach  his  by  any  means,  violent  or  gentle.  In  a 
fit  of  anger,  the  pirate  ordered  his  sailors  to  cast  her 
into  the  hold  among  the  slaves  and  hostages,  there 
to  endure  fever,  crowding,  hunger,  and  thirst. 

A  week  or  two  later  these  lean,  half-dead  wretches 
were  kicked  out  of  their  dark  and  stifling  dungeon 
44 


In  the  Caribbean 

to  be  sold  to  some  planters.  A  woman  among  them 
asked  for  a  few  words  with  Morgan.  Haggard, 
tear-stained,  ragged,  neglected  as  she  was,  the  cap- 
tain did  not  at  first  recognize  her  as  the  one  whom 
he  had  insulted  by  his  show  of  love.  When  he 
did  recall  her  name  and  state  he  asked  indifferently 
what  she  wanted.  She  told  him  that  an  injustice 
had  been  done  ;  that  she  had  at  first  told  him  it 
was  in  her  power  to  buy  her  liberty,  believing  it 
to  be  so  ;  but  her  hope  was  destroyed,  and  she  was 
so  .ill  and  wasted  that  she  would  be  useless  as  a 
slave.  As  she  was  going  on  board  of  the  ship 
she  had  whispered  to  a  couple  of  Spanish  priests 
telling  them  where  her  money  was  concealed,  and 
asking  them  to  pay  her  ransom  with  it.  They 
also  were  under  guard,  but  they  persuaded  one  of 
the  buccaneer  officers  to  go  with  them,  recovered 
the  money,  bought  their  own  freedom  with  it,  and 
ran  away.  Hearing  this,  Morgan  sent  the  woman 
back  to  Panama,  succeeded  in  capturing  the  priests, 
and  sold  them  into  slavery. 

It  is  said  of  Morgan  that  he  had  a  fire  ship,  which 
he  would  tow  as  close  as  possible  to  the  fleets  of  his 
enemies,  both  to  draw  their  fire  and  kindle  a  more 
disastrous  one.  What  appeared  to  be  its  crew 
were  logs  of  wood,  placed  upright  between  the  bul- 
warks, each  log  surmounted  by  a  hat.  As  to  fire, 
it  is  recorded  that  Teach,  or  Blackbeard*  now  and 
then  shut  himself  into  his  cabin  and  burned  sulphur 
to  prove  to  his  crew  that  he  was  a  devil.  He  used 
45 


Myths  and  Legends 

to  tie  his  whiskers  with  red  ribbons  into  pigtails 
that  he  tucked  over  his  ears,  and  he  looked  the  part. 
Yet  he  was  less  of  a  monster  than  L'Olonnais,  who 
so  hated  Spaniards  that  he  would  not  only  slaughter 
his  prisoners,  but  would  bite  their  hearts  like  a 
savage  beast  after  he  had  cut  them  out.  Beside 
Blackbeard  there  was  a  Redbeard  and  a  Bluebeard. 
All  three  of  these  gentlemen  had  castles  in  St. 
Thomas,  and  that  of  Bluebeard  had  a  room  in  which 
it  is  alleged  that  he  killed  his  wives  after  the  fashion 
of  his  Eastern  relative. 

THE    BOAT    OF   PHANTOM    CHILDREN 

SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE,  destroyer  of  many  of 
the  "  invincible"  ships  of  Spain,  came  to 
America  with  Sir  John  Hawkins,  to  subdue  the 
Spanish  colonies  with  the  heaviest  fleet  he  ever  com- 
manded. Though  wrangles  between  the  com- 
manders made  this  expedition  a  comparative  failure, 
still  wherever  the  head  of  a  don  was  seen,  a  crack- 
ing blow  was  struck  at  it.  War  was  a  crueller 
business  then  than  it  is  to-day,  in  spite  of  our  high 
explosives,  our  armored  ships,  our  mighty  guns,  and 
our  nimble  tactics,  and  things  were  done  that  no 
captain  would  dare  in  these  times ;  at  least,  no  cap- 
tain with  a  fear  of  the  world's  rebuke,  or  that  of 
his  own  conscience.  Just  before  Christmas,  1594, 
Drake  was  scourging  the  coast  of  Colombia,  burn- 
ing houses,  and  shipping  and  despoiling  the  towns. 
46 


In  the  Caribbean 

The  people  of  one  village  near  Rio  de  la  Hache, 
having  been  warned  of  his  coming,  buried  their 
little  property,  closed  their  houses,  put  fifty  of  their 
children  on  a  fishing  smack,  while  they  hurriedly 
provisioned  some  boats  to  carry  all  the  people  to  a 
distant  cape,  where  they  would  remain  in  hiding 
until  after  Drake  had  destroyed  their  homes  and 
passed  on.  The  fisherman  who  owned  the  smack 
set  sail  too  soon  ;  he  was  separated  from  the  others 
in  a  gale,  and  Drake,  who  then  appeared,  ran  be- 
tween him  and  the  shore,  and  with  a  couple  of  shots 
drove  him  farther  into  the  wild  sea.  The  smack 
never  returned.  After  the  English  had  passed,  the 
people  watched  for  it,  and,  truly,  on  the  next  day, 
a  boat  was  seen  beating  against  the  gale  and  trying 
to  make  the  pier.  As  it  came  nearer,  the  parents 
saw  their  children  holding  out  their  arms  and  laugh- 
ing. Then  the  outlines  of  the  hull  and  sail  grew 
dim,  the  children's  forms  drooped  as  if  weary,  and 
in  another  moment  the  vision  had  passed.  Long 
was  the  grief  and  loud  were  the  curses  on  the 
English.  When  Drake  learned  that  he  had  fired  on 
a  harmless  fishing  vessel  and  driven  a  company  of 
little  ones  away  from  land  to  be  sunk  in  a  tempest, 
he  was  filled  with  compunction  and  misgiving. 
The  same  vision  that  the  parents  had  seen  crossed 
the  path  of  his  own  ships.  Before  every  storm  the 
boat  of  phantoms  appeared,  and  when  he  sailed  for 
Escudo  and  Porto  Bello  it  followed  him.  Wearied 
with  many  wars,  ill  with  tropical  fever,  repentant 
47 


Myths  and  Legends 

for  this  useless  killing,  he  sank  into  a  depression 
from  which  nothing  could  rouse  him,  and  in  Jan- 
uary he  died  on  his  ship,  at  Nombre  de  Dios.  His 
remains  were  consigned  to  a  sailor's  grave — the  wide 
ocean — and  as  the  ship  moved  on  her  way,  the 
crew,  looking  back  to  the  place  where  the  body  had 
gone  down,  saw  the  phantom  smack  rise  from  the 
deep,  rush  like  a  wind-blown  wrack  across  the 
spot,  and  melt  into  the  air  as  it  neared  the  shore. 


EARLY   PORTO   RICO 

THOUGH  Columbus  made  his  first  landing  in 
Porto  Rico  at  Naguabo,  where  the  Caribs 
afterward  destroyed  a  Spanish  settlement,  he  gave  its 
present  name  to  the  island  when  he  put  in  Aguada 
for  water.  Charmed  with  the  beauty  of  the  bay, 
the  opulence  of  vegetation,  the  hope  of  wealth  in 
the  river  sands,  he  christened  it  "  the  rich  port," 
and  extending  this,  applied  to  the  whole  island  the 
name  of  San  Juan  Bautista  de  Puerto  Rico — St. 
John  the  Baptist  of  the  Rich  Port.  The  natives 
knew  their  island  as  Boriquen.  Later  came  Ponce 
de  Leon,  who  founded  Caparra,  now  Pueblo  Viejo, 
across  the  bay  from  San  Juan,  to  which  spot  he 
shifted  a  little  later  and  built  the  white  house  that 
may  still  be  seen.  San  Juan  is  the  oldest  city  of 
white  origin  in  the  Western  world,  except  Santo 
Domingo,  albeit  Santiago  de  Cuba  and  Baracoa  claim 
48 


In  the  Caribbean 

to  be  contemporary.     The  body  of  Ponce  is  buried 
in  San  Juan,  in  the  church  of  Santo  Domingo. 

When  this  fair  island  was  claimed  by  Spain,  it 
had  a  population  of  over  half  a  million,  but  Ponce 
at  once  set  about  the  extinction  of  the  native  ele- 
ment. The  populace  was  simple,  affectionate,  con- 
fiding, and  in  showing  friendship  for  the  invaders  it 
invited  and  obtained  slavery.  It  has  been  ingen- 
iously advanced  that  the  Spaniards  disliked  the 
natives  because  of  the  cleanliness  of  the  latter.  On 
account  of  the  heat  they  wore  no  clothing,  to  ab- 
sorb dirt  and  perspiration,  and  bathed  at  least  once 
every  day.  In  those  times  white  people  were 
frugal  in  the  use  of  water,  Spain  being  more  pro- 
nounced against  it  than  almost  any  other  nation. 
Listen  to  one  of  the  Spanish  writers,  though  he  is 
talking,  not  of  our  Indians,  but  of  the  Moors : 
"  Water  seems  more  needed  by  these  infidels  than 
bread,  for  they  wash  every  day,  as  their  damnable 
religion  directs  them  to,  and  they  use  it  in  baths, 
and  in  a  thousand  other  idle  fashions,  of  which  Span- 
iards and  other  Christians  can  make  little  account." 
We  know  that  a  Spanish  queen  refrained,  not  only 
from  washing,  but  from  changing  her  clothes  for  a 
whole  year.  The  Porto  Ricans  were  naked,  but 
unaware  of  their  nakedness,  therefore  they  were 
moderately  virtuous  ;  at  least,  more  virtuous  than 
their  conquerors.  Had  they  been  treated  with  jus- 
tice and  mercy  they  would  have  remained  friendly 
to  the  white  men,  and  would  have  been  of  great 
4  49 


Myths  and  Legends 

service  to  them  in  the  development  of  the  island. 
As  early  as  1512,  Africans  were  shipped  to  the 
island  to  take  the  places,  at  enforced  labor,  of  the 
Indians  who  had  been  destroyed.  A  religion  was 
forced  down  the  throats  of  the  natives  that  they 
did  not  understand,  especially  as  the  friars  preached 
it;  and  being  unable  at  once  to  grasp  the  meaning 
or  appreciate  the  value  of  discourses  on  the  spiritual 
nature,  the  trinity,  vicarious  atonement,  transub- 
stantiation,  and  the  intercession  of  saints,  the  sol- 
diers, always  within  call,  followed  their  custom  when 
the  congregations  proved  intractable  :  killed  them. 

It  is  said  that  the  Spaniards  acquired  such  ease  in 
the  slaying  of  Indians  that  they  would  crack  a  man's 
head  merely  to  see  if  it  would  split  easily  or  if 
their  swords  were  keeping  their  edge,  and  that  they 
varied  their  more  direct  and  merciful  slaughters  by 
roasting  one  of  the  despised  infidels  occasionally. 
Slavery  in  damp  mines,  fevers  in  swamps,  unaccus- 
tomed work,  strain,  anxiety,  grief,  insufficient  food, 
lack  of  liberty,  separation  from  friends  and  families, 
killed  more  than  the  sword.  It  was  the  same  in  all 
the  conquered  lands.  In  Hayti  a  million  people 
were  oppressed  out  of  existence  or  slain  outright  in 
fifteen  years,  and  but  sixty-five  thousand  were  left. 
In  less  than  a  century  that  island  had  not  a  single 
native.  So  in  Porto  Rico  :  not  a  man  is  to  be  found 
there  to-day  who  is  a  pure-blooded  aborigine.  Even 
their  relics  and  monuments,  their  traditions  and  his- 
tory, were  obliterated  by  their  conquerors — the  race 
So 


In  the  Caribbean 

that  destroyed  the  libraries  of  the  Moors  and  the 
picture  records  of  the  Aztecs.  Few  even  of  their 
burial  places  are  known,  although  the  Cave  of  the 
Dead,  near  Caguana,  was  so  named  because  of  the 
Indian  skeletons  found  in  it. 

Some  of  the  tools  and  implements  of  stone  found 
on  the  island  are  so  strange  that  one  cannot  even 
guess  their  purpose.  Of  the  heavy  stone  collars 
that  have  been  preserved,  a  priest  holds  that  they 
were  placed  about  the  necks  of  the  dead,  that  the 
devil  might  not  lift  them  out  of  their  graves,  but 
this  sounds  like  an  invention  of  the  church,  for 
there  is  no  proof  that  a  belief  in  the  devil  existed 
among  these  people.  They  had  a  god,  as  well  as 
minor  spirits,  and  sang  hymns  to  them  ;  they  had 
some  crafts  and  arts,  for  they  made  canoes,  huts, 
chairs,  nets,  hammocks,  pottery,  weapons,  and  im- 
plements, and,  although  the  fierce  Caribs  vexed  them 
now  and  again,  they  were  accounted  as  the  gentlest 
and  most  advanced  of  the  native  people  in  the  An- 
tilles. Speaking  of  the  hammock,  that  is  one  of 
their  devices  that  the  world  has  generally  adopted, 
and  the  name  is  one  of  the  few  Indian  words  that 
have  survived  the  Spanish  oppressions,  though  there 
are  many  geographic  titles.  Other  familiar  survivals 
are  the  words  hurricane,  canoe,  tobacco,  potato, 
banana,  and  a  few  other  botanical  names. 

It  is  probable  that  these  Boriquenos  were  allied 
in  speech  and  custom,  as  well  as  in  blood,  to  their 
neighbors  the  Haytiens,  of  whom  saith  Peter 


Myths  and  Legends 

Martyr,  "  The  land  among  these  people  is  common 
as  sun  and  water.  '  Mine*  and  '  thine/  the  seeds 
of  all  mischief,  have  no  place  among  them.  They 
are  content  with  so  little  that  in  this  large  country 
they  have  more  than  plenty.  They  live  in  a  golden 
world  without  toil,  in  open  gardens,  not  intrenched, 
defended,  or  divided.  They  deal  truly  with  one 
another,  without  laws,  judges,  or  books.  He  that 
will  hurt  another  is  an  evil  man,  and  while  they 
take  no  pleasure  in  superfluity,  they  take  means  to 
increase  the  roots  that  are  their  food — diet  so  simple 
that  their  health  is  assured.'*  Still,  it  is  known 
that  in  their  defence  against  the  marauding  Caribs 
the  Porto  Ricans  were  courageous,  and  had  be- 
come adept  with  arrow  and  club,  and  it  was  believed 
by  some  of  the  first  explorers  that  they  ate  their 
captives. 

The  aborigines  of  Porto  Rico  probably  differed 
little,  if  at  all,  from  the  Haytiens  in  their  faith  in 
an  all-powerful,  deathless  god,  who  had  a  mother 
but  no  father,  who  lived  in  the  sky  and  was  repre- 
sented on  earth  by  zemes  or  messengers.  Every 
chief  had  his  zemi,  carved  in  stone  or  wood,  as  a 
tutelary  genius,  to  whom  he  addressed  his  prayers 
and  who  had  a  temple  of  his  own.  Zemes  directed 
the  wind,  waves,  rains,  rivers,  floods,  and  crops, 
gave  success  or  failure  in  the  hunt,  and  gave  visions 
to  or  spoke  with  priests  who  had  worked  them- 
selves into  a  rhapsodic  state  by  the  use  of  a  drug 
(it  may  have  been  tobacco),  in  order  to  receive 
52 


In  the  Caribbean 

the  message,  which  often  concerned  the  health  of  a 
person  or  of  a  whole  village.  The  Spaniards  re- 
garded these  manitous  as  images  of  the  devil,  and  in 
order  to  keep  them  the  natives  hid  the  little  effigies 
from  the  friars  and  the  troops.  In  the  festivals  of 
these  gods  there  were  dances,  music,  and  an  offering 
of  flower-decorated  cakes. 

Hayti  was  the  first  created,  the  sun  and  moon 
came  from  the  cave  near  Cape  Haytien  known  as 
la  voute  a  Minguet,  through  a  round  hole  in  the 
roof.  Men  came  from  another  cave,  the  big  ones 
through  a  large  door,  the  little  men  from  a  smaller 
one.  They  were  without  women  for  a  long  time, 
because  the  latter  lived  in  trees  and  were  slippery  ; 
but  some  men  with  rough  hands  finally  pulled  four 
of  them  down  from  the  branches,  and  the  world 
was  peopled.  At  first,  the  men  dared  to  leave  their 
cave  only  at  night,  for  the  sun  was  so  strong  it 
turned  them  to  stone,  though  one  man  who  was 
caught  at  his  fishing  by  the  sun  became  a  bird  that 
still  sings  at  night,  lamenting  his  fate.  When  a 
chief  was  dying  in  pain  he  was  mercifully  strangled, 
— though  the  common  people  were  allowed  to  lin- 
ger to  their  end, — and  his  deeds  were  rehearsed  in 
ballads  sung  to  the  drum.  There  was  a  belief  in 
ghosts,  albeit  they  could  not  be  seen  in  the  light, 
unless  in  a  lonely  place,  nor  by  many  persons. 
When  they  did  mingle  with  the  people  it  was  easy 
to  distinguish  them  from  the  living,  as  they  had  no 
navel.  What  became  of  the  wicked  after  death  we 
53 


Myths  and  Legends 

do  not  know,  but  the  good  went  to  a  happy  place 
where  they  met  those  whom  they  loved,  and  lived 
among  women,  flowers,  and  fruits.  During  the 
day  the  departed  souls  hid  among  the  mountains, 
but  peopled  the  fairest  valleys  at  night,  and  in  order 
that  they  should  not  suffer  from  hunger  the  living 
were  careful  to  leave  fruit  on  the  trees. 

From  these  quaint  and  simple  faiths  the  people 
were  roused  by  the  professors  of  a  more  enlightened 
one,  who  made  their  teaching  useless,  however,  if 
not  odious,  to  the  brown  people  by  their  practises. 
It  was  an  old  belief,  at  least  among  the  Haytiens, 
that  a  race  of  strangers,  with  bodies  clad,  would 
cross  the  sea  and  would  reduce  the  people  to  servi- 
tude. This  prophecy  may  have  made  them  the 
more  unwilling  to  yield  to  the  Spaniards,  in  respect 
of  religious  faith,  despite  the  signs  and  wonders 
that  were  shown  to  them.  When  chief  Guarionex 
raided  a  Spanish  chapel  and  destroyed  the  sacred 
images  within,  the  shattered  statues  were  buried  in 
a  garden,  and  the  turnips  and  radishes  planted  there 
came  up  in  the  form  of  the  cross.  But  even  this 
did  not  convince  the  savages,  whom  it  became 
necessary  to  burn,  in  order  to  smooth  the  way  to 
reform. 


54 


In  the  Caribbean 


THE   DELUGE 

LIKE  many  unschooled  peoples,  the  Antillean 
tribes  had  their  legend  of  a  time  when  the 
earth  was  covered  by  a  flood.  The  island  of  St. 
Thomas  was  one  of  the  first  to  rise  out  of  the  sea. 
The  Haytiens  said  that  the  deluge  did  not  subside 
and  that  the  present  islands  are  the  summits  of 
mountains  that  formerly  towered  to  a  great  height 
above  the  plains.  Far  back  in  the  days  when  people 
lived  more  simply,  and  white  men,  with  their  abom- 
inable contrivings  for  work,  had  not  even  been  in- 
vented, a  cacique  or  chief  of  their  island  killed  his 
son,  who  had  tried  to  harm  him,  albeit  when  the  lad 
was  dead  a  natural  affection  prompted  the  father  to 
clean  his  bones  and  conceal  them  in  a  gourd.  Some 
time  afterwards  the  cacique  and  his  wife  opened  this 
vegetable  tomb,  to  look  on  the  mortal  relics  of  their 
child,  when  a  number  of  fish  jumped  out.  Believ- 
ing that  he  now  had  in  the  gourd  a  magic  receptacle, 
from  which  he  could  take  food  at  any  time,  the  chief 
placed  it  on  his  roof,  where  mischief-makers  might 
not  reach  it.  While  absent  on  a  hunting-trip  his 
four  surviving  sons  took  down  the  gourd  to  see  what 
peculiar  properties  it  had,  and  why  it  had  been  thus 
set  apart.  In  passing  it  from  one  to  the  other  it  fell 
and  was  broken  into  little  pieces.  Instantly  a  vast 
quantity  of  water  gushed  from  it,  increasing  in  vol- 
ume every  instant.  The  water  arose  so  that  it 
reached  their  knees,  and  they  had  to  climb  the  hills. 
55 


Myths  and  Legends 

Whales,  sharks,  porpoises,  dolphins,  and  smaller 
creatures  came  swimming  forth,  and  the  flow  of 
the  water  never  ceased  until  the  whole  world  was 
flooded,  as  we  see  it  now,  for  the  ocean  came  from 
that  gourd. 

HOW  SPANIARDS  WERE  FOUND  TO   BE 
MORTAL 

THE  first  Spaniards  to  reach  the  American 
islands  were  everywhere  greeted  as  heav- 
enly visitors,  and  the  natives  would  not  have  been 
astonished  had  the  caravels  spread  their  sails — their 
wings,  as  they  first  were  called — and  flown  into  the 
clouds,  carrying  Columbus  and  his  wrangling,  jeal- 
ous, sensual,  gold-greedy  company  with  him.  After- 
ward they  would  have  been  more  astonished  than 
sorry.  When  the  white  men  discovered  this  simple 
faith  among  the  savages  they  encouraged  it,  for  it 
induced  the  Indians  to  give  up  their  wives,  daugh- 
ters, houses,  weapons,  and,  above  all  else,  their  gold, 
to  the  strangers.  The  little  bells  and  beads  they 
gave  in  return  were  treasured  because  of  their  celes- 
tial origin  and  adored  as  fervently  as  the  bones  of 
saints  are  adored  in  some  of  the  European  churches. 
Everywhere  and  always  the  demand  was  for  gold, 
and  in  the  belief  that  the  supply  was  going  to  last 
forever,  Spain  began  to  ruin  herself  with  more  in- 
dustry than  she  had  ever  shown  in  peaceful  callings. 
Her  wars,  her  splendors,  her  vanities,  her  neglect  of 
education  and  morality,  bore  their  fruit  when  she 
56 


In  the  Caribbean 

pulled  her  flag  down  from  the  staff  on  Havana's 
Moro,  and  gave  up  her  claims  to  the  last  foot  of  land 
in  the  Western  world. 

Ponce  de  Leon  permitted  the  fiction  that  the 
Spaniards  were  angels — save  the  mark  ! — for  it 
smoothed  his  progress  in  stripping  the  Porto  Ricans 
of  their  poor  little  possessions,  taking  their  lands  for 
settlement,  foraging  over  the  island,  forcing  his  re- 
ligion upon  them,  and  compelling  them  to  serve  him 
as  miners,  carriers,  farmers,  fishermen,  and  laborers. 
Many  died  because  it  was  thought  to  be  cheaper  to 
work  them  to  death  and  get  fresh  ones  than  to  feed 
them.  After  a  time  the  Indians  began  to  have  doubts, 
and  when  the  friars  enlarged  on  the  glories  of  heaven, 
and  described  it  as  the  abode  of  Spaniards,  more  of 
them  than  Hatuey  were  anxious  to  be  allowed  to  go 
to  the  other  place.  They  did  not  at  first  dare  to 
attack  the  intruders,  for  what  could  men  avail  against 
gods,  and  of  what  use  were  spears  and  clubs  against 
their  thunderous  arms  and  smashing  missiles? 

As  the  aggressions  increased  and  became  less  and 
less  endurable,  Chief  Agueynaba  resolved,  out  of  the 
soreness  of  his  heart,  to  test  this  reputed  immortality 
of  his  guests.  A  messenger,  one  Salzedo,  was  to  be 
sent  away  from  San  Juan  on  some  official  errand, 
with  a  little  company  of  natives  as  freighters  and 
servants.  This  was  Agueynaba's  chance.  He  or- 
dered his  men  to  slip  Salzedo  into  a  river  and  hold 
him  under  water  for  a  time.  If  he  was  an  immortal 
this  would  not  hurt  him,  and  if  he  died,  why — they 
57 


Myths  and  Legends 

would  try  very  hard  to  bear  up  under  the  loss. 
While  crossing  the  river — the  spot  is  still  shown — 
the  men  who  bore  Salzedo  on  their  shoulders  pitched 
him  off  and  detained  him  beneath  the  surface  for  a 
couple  of  hours ;  then,  fearing  that  he  might  be 
still  alive  and  vicious,  they  put  him  on  a  bank  and 
howled  apologies  to  his  remains  for  three  days. 
By  that  time  there  was  no  longer  a  doubt  about  his 
deadness.  Reports  of  this  discovery  traversed  the 
island  with  the  speed  of  a  South  American  mail  ser- 
vice, so  that  within  a  week  people  even  forty  miles 
away  had  heard  about  it.  Thus  encouraged  to  re- 
sistance by  the  discovery  that  white  men  were  mor- 
tal, the  populace  fell  upon  their  persecutors  and 
troubled  them,  although  after  one  defeat  the  Span- 
iards rallied  and  drove  the  Indians  back  to  the 
mines. 

PONCE 

WHEN  Ponce  de  Leon  visited  and  conquered 
Porto  Rico  he  heard  of  the  elixir  of  life. 
It  may  not  have  been  among  the  springs  of  that 
island,  but  the  natives  had  a  faith  in  it  and  some  of 
them  referred  it  to  the  Bahamas.  Their  possible 
reason  for  this  was  to  persuade  the  white  men  to  go 
there  and  look  for  it,  for  they  were  not  popular  in 
Porto  Rico,  and  this  was  the  more  to  be  regretted 
in  Ponce's  case,  because  he  was  far  from  popular  at 
home.  At  the  court  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  was 
a  page  who  was  handsome,  spirited,  and  saucy.  One 
58 


In  the  Caribbean 

of  the  daughters  of  the  royal  pair,  wearied  with  the 
forms  and  ceremonies  of  her  state,  which,  in  the 
most  punctilious  court  in  Europe,  were  especially 
trying,  found  means  to  converse  with  this  well- 
appearing,  quick-witted  scamp.  A  tattling  courtier, 
recalling  a  faux  pas  of  the  last  queen,  and  desiring 
no  more  scandals,  reported  that  the  princess  had 
been  seen  to  smile  on  the  youngster.  No  guilt  was 
proven  upon  him,  but  handsome  pages  were  ill- 
chosen  company  for  young  women  of  blue  blood. 

Ponce  de  Leon  was  the  page,  and  he  was  sent  to 
the  New  World  to  discover  something  to  the  advan- 
tage of  his  own  modesty,  and  incidentally  to  accu- 
mulate for  shipment  anything  that  might  be  useful 
to  the  Spanish  treasury.  He  landed  in  Boriquen,  as 
Porto  Rico  was  then  called,  and  began  a  general 
subjugation  and  slaughter  of  the  natives.  Some  were 
slain  in  battle,  but  thousands  were  carried  away  and 
made  to  work  in  mines  and  on  distant  plantations,  as 
slaves,  until  their  health  was  destroyed,  and  they,  too, 
were  no  longer  an  obstacle  to  Spanish  control,  though 
the  lack  of  their  hands  was  a  hindrance  to  Spanish  en- 
terprise. Ponce  took  his  share  of  the  gold  and  treas- 
ure he  had  forced  these  unfortunates  to  supply,  and 
went  back  to  Spain  with  it.  Sea  air  had  spoiled 
his  complexion,  fighting  had  roughened  his  manners, 
slave-driving  had  made  his  voice  coarse.  Possibly, 
also,  his  princess  had  recovered  from  her  disappoint- 
ment. Maybe  she  had  been  married  off  to  some 
nobody  of  Portugal,  or  France,  or  Austria,  for  state 
59 


Myths  and  Legends 

reasons,  and  had  entered  on  the  usual  loveless  life  of 
royalty.  Or  she  may  have  beguiled  her  maidenly 
solitude  by  drinking  much  wine  of  Oporto,  Madeira, 
and  Xeres  with  her  dinner,  thereby  acquiring  that 
amplitude  of  girth,  that  ruddiness  of  countenance, 
and  that  polish  of  nose,  which  add  so  little  to  ro- 
mance. At  all  events,  we  hear  nothing  more  of  the 
affair. 

In  the  course  of  years  Ponce  took  to  himself  the 
gout,  rheumatism,  dyspepsia,  and  a  few  such  matters, 
and  he  scolded  his  dresser  more  than  usual  because 
his  clothes  did  not  fit  at  the  waist  as  they  had  done, 
once.  He  parted  his  hair  with  a  towel,  and  it  was 
grizzled  where  it  curled  about  his  neck  and  temples. 
Then  he  recalled  the  tales  the  Boriquenos  had  told 
of  the  bright  waters  that  gushed  from  the  earth 
amid  banks  of  flowers, — waters  so  sweet  that  who 
drank  would  drink  again,  and  with  every  draught 
would  throw  off  years  and  pain  until  at  last  he  was 
a  youth  once  more, — a  youth  with  hot  blood,  spark- 
ling eyes,  lithe  muscles  ;  a  youth  who  saw  the  world 
full  of  beauty  and  adventure.  Ah,  to  be  once  more 
as  he  was  when  the  princess  beamed  on  him ;  to 
throw  away  his  cares,  his  ails,  his  conscience,  his 
regrets ;  to  sing  and  dance,  to  ruffle  it  with  other 
cavaliers,  to  dice,  to  drink,  to  feast,  to  win  the  smiles 
of  ladies !  It  was  a  joy  worth  trying  to  attain. 

He  sailed  once  more,  an  older,  sober  man.  He 
discovered  Florida,  bathed  in  its  springs,  drank  from 
its  flower-edged  streams,  but  to  no  avail.  Bimini, 
60 


In  the  Caribbean 

the  place  of  the  living  waters,  evaded  him.  Bori- 
quen,  renamed  Porto  Rico,  could  offer  no  more.  But, 
though  his  living  presence  passed,  the  first  building 
on  the  island — the  White  House,  near  San  Juan — 
remains,  and  he  left  his  name  in  the  town  that  was 
first  among  the  Antillean  cities  to  raise  the  flag  of  a 
republic  that  should  wave  over  the  continent  he  had 
helped  to  discover  and  colonize  : — the  city  of  Ponce. 

WATER  CAVES 

AS  in  most  of  the  Spanish  American  countries, 
so  in  Porto  Rico,  ghosts  are  common, — so 
common  that  in  some  towns  the  people  hardly  turn 
to  look  at  them ;  and  if  on  a  wild  night  in  the  hur- 
ricane season  they  hear  them  gibbering  at  their 
doors,  they  patter  an  ave  or  throw  a  piece  of  har- 
ness at  the  disturbance,  and  sleep  again.  Ponce,  for 
instance,  has  a  number  of  these  spooks,  such  as  the 
man  who  searches  for  his  hidden  money,  and  the 
child  with  a  snowy  face  that  knocks  on  the  panes, 
then  stares  fixedly  in,  with  corpse  eyes,  at  the  win- 
dows. Best  known  among  these  supernatural  citi- 
zens are  two  lovers  who  "  spoon"  on  dark  nights,  and 
are  faintly  outlined  on  the  landscape  as  figures  of  quiv- 
ering, smoky  blue.  Their  favorite  haunt  is  their 
death-place,  eight  miles  from  Ponce,  in  a  hollow 
among  limestone  hills,  now  environed  by  a  coffee 
plantation.  Here  are  found  three  basins — results  of 
erosion,  most  likely — that  are  described  as  natural 
61 


Myths  and  Legends 

bath-tubs.  The  middle  and  largest  of  these  pools 
is  partly  filled  with  silt,  probably  occluding  the  en- 
trance to  a  cavern  which  formerly  opened  into  it,  a 
fathom  or  so  below  the  water-surface.  This  cave 
was  the  hiding-place  of  a  native  woman  whose 
father  had  discovered  her  love  for  one  of  Ponce  de 
Leon's  soldiers.  He  forbade  her  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  enemies  of  his  country,  enlarged  on 
their  rapacity,  cruelty,  and  treachery,  and  tried  to 
create  in  her  a  sense  of  shame  that  she  should  have 
chosen  a  Spaniard,  instead  of  a  Boriqueno  chief,  for 
a  lover.  There  were  no  locksmiths  in  the  Antilles 
for  love  to  laugh  at,  but  there  were  spears  and  knives 
to  fear,  and  the  young  couple,  who  seemed  to  be  in- 
spired by  genuine  affection,  met  at  this  lonely  spot  to 
do  their  courting.  On  the  least  suspicion  of  a  hos- 
tile approach,  the  maid  could  slip  into  the  water, 
enter  the  cave,  and  wait  for  an  hour  or  a  day,  until 
the  intruder  had  retired.  However  it  happened 
nobody  could  tell, — or  would, — but  the  Spaniard  was 
found  drowned  one  morning  in  that  pool.  He  may 
have  been  found  waiting  there,  by  the  angry  parent, 
thrown  in,  on  general  principles,  and  held  to  the 
bottom  by  his  steel  arms  and  armor;  or  he  may  have 
been  trying  to  find  the  cave  in  which  his  charmer 
had  secreted  herself,  and  while  so  engaged  may  have 
bumped  his  head  against  the  rocky  wall  and  stunned 
himself,  or  he  may  have  been  a  poor  swimmer  and 
lost  his  wits  and  his  wind.  At  all  events,  drowned 
he  was,  and  the  dusky  virgin  who  loved  him,  seeing 
62 


In  the  Caribbean 

his  form  at  the  bottom  of  the  water,  sang  her  sorrow 
chant,  dived  in,  and,  holding  to  his  body,  perished 
wilfully  at  his  side.  Their  love  endures,  and  that 
is  why  their  luminous  shadows  sit  at  the  brink  of 
the  pool,  with  locked  arms  and  meeting  lips,  to  the 
disgust  of  voting  women  and  confirmed  bachelors. 

This  legend,  with  variants,  is  found  in  many  parts 
of  the  world.  There  are  two  or  three  instances  of 
it  in  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  a  tradition  pertaining 
to  Hayti  is  worth  quoting  here,  as  it  refers  to  the 
same  period  and  illustrates  the  same  enmity  between 
the  white  and  native  races.  Near  the  city  of  San 
Domingo  is,  or  was,  a  "  water  cave,"  so  named  be- 
cause the  entrance  to  it  was  several  feet  below  the 
lake  whose  shore  it  undermines.  When  the  young 
half-breed,  Diaz,  returned  from  Spain  to  his  native 
island  of  Hispaniola  in  1520,  his  mother,  Zameaca, 
queen  of  the  Ozamas,  had  disappeared,  possibly 
killed  outright  by  the  Spaniards,  or  more  slowly 
killed  by  enslavement  at  the  mines  in  vainly  trying 
to  satisfy  the  rapacity  of  the  white  race  for  gold. 
Diaz,  though  partly  of  Spanish  blood,  was  allied  in 
his  sympathies  to  the  Indians.  Hence,  they  planned 
to  make  him  ruler.  Their  conspiracy  was  quelled 
for  the  time  being,  with  such  brutality  that  those 
natives  who  escaped  death  hated  their  tyrants  with  a 
deeper  hatred  than  ever,  and  fixed  them  the  more 
strongly  in  their  resolution  to  be  avenged.  The 
leading  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  Ozamas  took 
refuge  in  the  water  cave,  spying  on  their  enemies 
and  going  about  to  make  converts  among  the  islanders 
63 


Myths  and  Legends 

at  night.  It  was  not  long  before  the  watchful 
Spaniards  discovered  that  mischief  was  afoot,  and 
there  were  reasons  for  believing  that  the  chiefs  had 
their  hiding  place  not  many  miles  from  town.  By 
following  various  suspects  into  the  country,  and 
noticing  the  time  and  way  of  their  return,  they  be- 
came convinced  that  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion 
were  somewhere  near  the  lake. 

A  young  woman,  a  slave  in  the  family  of  the 
Spanish  governor,  was  so  often  absent  on  mysterious 
errands  that  the  authorities  at  last  fixed  on  her  as 
the  one  most  likely  to  betray  her  countrymen.  She 
was  won  to  their  purpose  through  her  vanity.  Her 
mistress  had  a  comb  of  elaborate  and  curious  work- 
manship, and  to  have  one  like  it  was  the  principal 
object  in  her  existence.  The  governor  told  her 
that  she  should  have  this  priceless  treasure  itself  if 
she  would  tell  him  where  the  chiefs  were  meeting. 
To  this  act  of  treachery  she  finally  agreed  on  condition 
that  her  lover,  who  was  one  of  the  chiefs,  should  be 
pardoned.  That  evening  she  carried  bread  and  fruit 
to  the  lake,  and  sitting  on  the  bank  sang  loudly  for 
some  minutes.  The  Spanish  soldiers,  who  were 
watching  from  the  shrubbery,  were  astonished  to 
see  a  man  rise  like  a  seal  from  the  water,  swim  to 
the  shore,  take  the  parcel  from  the  girl's  hands,  ex- 
change a  few  words  with  her,  and  disappear  again 
beneath  the  surface.  The  song  was  a  signal  for  one 
of  the  men  to  come  out  and  receive  the  food,  and 
it  was  heard  through  a  crevice  in  the  cave  roof. 
64 


In  the  Caribbean 

Next  day  the  girl  sang  again,  and  the  whole  com- 
pany left  the  cave.  They  had  no  sooner  gained  the 
shore  than  the  Spaniards  sprang  from  the  shrubbery 
and  surrounded  them.  As  they  were  led  away  to 
death,  one  of  the  chiefs  levelled  his  finger  at  the 
girl  and  said,  "  I  am  going  to  a  land  of  peace.  You 
will  never  find  the  way  to  it."  Her  lover  cast  her 
off  with  bitter  reproaches.  Then,  as  the  murderous 
volley  pealed  across  the  fields,  and  the  rebellion  was 
ended,  her  heart  broke.  She  still  sits  at  the  lake- 
side in  the  evening,  weeping  over  her  comb. 


HOW   A   DUTCHMAN    HELPED   THE 
SPANIARDS 

HAD  any  Dutchman  been  charged  with  intend- 
ing a  kindnesss  to  the  dons  when  his 
country  was  smarting  under  the  Spanish  scourge 
he  would  have  offered  the  life  of  some  distant  rela- 
tive to  disprove  the  accusation.  Without  a  guess 
that  he  could  be  injuring  his  own  land  and  enrich- 
ing that  of  his  enemy,  an  innocent  magistrate  of  Am- 
sterdam did  that  for  which  he  would  afterward  have 
submitted  to  the  abuse  of  his  friends,  and  if  sack- 
cloth and  ashes  had  been  in  vogue  he  would  have 
worn  them.  It  all  came  about  through  his  wish  to 
be  pleasant  to  a  Frenchman,  the  same  being  Louis 
XIV.  He  sent  to  this  monarch  a  curiosity  in  the 
form  of  a  young  coffee-tree,  thinking,  no  doubt, 
that  a  warm  corner  could  be  found  for  it  in  the  Jardin 

5  65 


Myths  and  Legends 

des  Plantes  among  the  orchids  and  cacti,  and  little 
recking  that  Louis  had  a  Spanish  father-in-law.  At 
that  time  Holland  enjoyed,  in  her  colonies,  almost  a 
monopoly  of  the  coffee  trade  of  the  world,  but  that  one 
little  tree  broke  her  monopoly,  just  as  one  little  leak 
in  her  dikes  led  to  the  eating  away  of  miles  of  earth- 
ern  wall  and  an  in-rush  and  devastation  of  the  sea. 

For  Louis  was  more  clever  than  some  other 
kings,  almost  clever  enough  to  have  been  in  trade, 
or  else  he  had  smart  advisers.  He  had  slips  cut 
from  the  coffee  tree,  and  ere  many  moons  had 
passed  a  promising  dozen  of  young  plants  were 
ready  for  shipment  to  Martinique,  the  new  French 
colony  in  the  Antilles.  A  botanist  was  sent  in 
charge  of  them,  it  being  the  purpose  of  Louis  to 
turn  the  island  into  a  coffee  plantation  and  be  free 
of  obligation  to  Holland.  The  voyage  was  long, 
because  of  head  winds  and  storms,  and  the  precious 
plants  were  in  peril.  Long  before  the  American 
shores  were  reached  the  water  supply  had  run  low, 
and  there  was  much  suffering  ;  yet  the  loyal  botanist 
gave  up  half  of  his  daily  allowance  in  order  that  his 
coffee-trees  should  live.  Salt  water  would  have  killed 
them,  and  in  those  days  ships  had  no  distilling  ap- 
paratus. Martinique  was  reached  in  safety,  how- 
ever, the  little  trees  struck  their  roots  into  congenial 
soil,  and  thus  the  seeds,  such  as  first  yielded  their 
aroma  to  a  surprised  and  gratified  Abyssinian  chief 
more  than  a  thousand  years  before,  now  spring 
from  the  strong  earth  of  the  Western  world. 
66 


In  the  Caribbean 

Whether  Spaniards  stole  some  of  these  trees,  or 
bought  them,  or  whether  they  got  away  by  accident, 
certes,  they  reached  Porto  Rico,  and  so  became  a 
source  of  pleasure  and  profit  to  people  whom  the 
Dutchman  did  not  have  in  mind  when  he  made  his 
little  gift  to  King  Louis.  It  is  believed  that  all  the 
coffee  raised  in  Batavia  for  the  Dutch  also  grew  from 
a  handful  of  seeds  that  had  been  sent  from  Arabia 
to  Java.  And,  oh,  that  ever  the  time  should  have 
come  when  France  had  to  buy  coffee  from  her  own 
plant  in  Porto  Rico,  and  send  to  that  same  island  for 
logwood  to  make  claret  with, — the  kind  she  sells  to 
New  York  for  bohemian  tables  d'hote ! 


THE   GHOST   OF   SAN   GERONIMO 

THE    castle    of   San   Geronimo,    San   Juan   de 
Porto  Rico,  was  founded  a  century  ago.     It 
occupies  a  rocky  point  at  the  east  end  of  San  Juan 
Island,   and  year   by   year    had   been    strengthened 
until,  when  the   American   ships   appeared  in   the 
offing,  it  was  thought  important  enough  to  garrison. 
Six   guns   were   emplaced,   two   other  gun   mounts 
were  found  by  our  troops  when  they  entered,  and  a 
hole  was  discovered  extending  from  a  dungeon  fifteen 
feet  toward  the  breastworks.      This  had  been  freshly 
dug,  and,  it  is  believed,  was  devised  for  the  storage 
of  explosives,  that  the  citadel  might   be  blown   up 
when  the  boys  in  blue  entered  to  take  possession. 
That  the  fort  was  abandoned  without  resorting  to 
67 


Myths  and  Legends 

this  revengeful  and  unmilitary  act  may  be  due  to  the 
ghost.  He  would  naturally  be  in  evidence  at  such 
a  time,  and  would  do  what  he  could  to  thwart  the 
schemes  of  his  enemies.  For  he  gave  his  body  to 
the  worms  fifty  years  or  more  ago.  In  the  flesh 
he  was  a  revolutionist,  and  had  been  dreaming  vain 
things  about  liberty  for  his  beloved  island.  It  is 
not  recorded  that  he  ever  harmed  any  one,  or  that 
his  little  insurrection  attained  the  dignity  of  any- 
thing more  than  a  rumor  and  an  official  chill,  but 
the  Spaniards  caught  him,  threw  him  into  the  dark 
prison  of  this  castle,  and  after  he  had  undergone 
hunger,  thirst,  and  illness,  they  went  through  their 
usual  forms  of  trial  and  condemned  him  to  death. 
This  among  the  civilized  would  have  meant  that  he 
would  be  sent  to  the  gallows  or  the  garrote ;  but 
this  victim  was  alleged  to  have  accomplices,  and 
quite  likely  he  was  suspected  of  having  a  small 
fund ;  for  the  first  thing  to  do  when  you  overthrow 
a  government,  or  want  to,  is  to  pass  the  hat.  To 
secure  the  names  of  his  fellow-conspirators,  but 
more  especially  their  money,  the  revolutionist  was 
therefore  consigned  to  the  torture  chamber,  where 
the  rack,  the  thumb-screw,  the  hot  irons,  the  whip, 
and  other  survivals  of  the  Inquisition  were  applied. 
When  the  officers  had  extorted  what  they  wanted, 
or  had  made  sure  there  was  nothing  to  extort,  the 
poor,  white  wreck  of  a  human  being  was  delivered 
by  the  judges  to  an  executioner,  and  a  merciful 
death  was  inflicted. 

68 


In  the  Caribbean 

Shortly  after  this  occurrence  the  officers  of  the 
San  Geronimo  garrison  began  to  request  transfers, 
and  the  social  set  that  had  been  formed  in  and  near 
the  castle  was  broken  up.  Gradually  the  troops 
thinned  away,  and  although  the  works  were  kept  in 
moderate  repair  and  occasionally  enlarged,  the  reg- 
ular force  was  finally  withdrawn,  and  even  the  soli- 
tary keepers  who  were  left  in  charge  died  unac- 
countably. This  was  because  the  ghost  of  the 
tortured  one  pervaded  its  damp  rooms  and  breathed 
blights  and  curses  on  the  occupants.  Its  appearance 
was  always  heralded  by  a  clatter  of  hoofs  on  the 
stone  bridge  leading  into  the  court.  The  on-rush 
of  spectre  horses  is  variously  explained,  some  be- 
lieving that  the  dead  man  is  leading  an  assault  on  the 
fort,  others  wondering  if  it  may  not  be  a  conscience- 
smitten  governor  hurrying  to  rescue  or  reprieve  his 
victim,  and  arriving  too  late, — a  theory  quite  gen- 
erally rejected  on  the  ground  that  there  never  was 
that  kind  of  a  Spanish  governor. 

An  American  officer,  who  took  up  his  home  in 
San  Geronimo  after  the  occupation,  was  disturbed  for 
three  successive  nights  by  the  ghost,  and  on  learn- 
ing the  tradition  of  the  place  he  investigated  the 
palace  and  brought  to  light  the  torture  chamber  with 
its  rows  of  hooks  and  rings  and  chains  about  the 
walls.  The  piercing  of  its  roof,  so  that  the  sun 
came  in  and  the  ghosts  and  malaria  went  out,  the  re- 
moval of  the  grim  relics  of  medievalism,  the  clean- 
ing and  whitewashing  of  the  apartments,  have 
69 


Myths  and  Legends 

probably  induced  the  spectre  to  take  up  his  quarters 
elsewhere,  for  his  old  haunts  are  hardly  recogniz- 
able, and  he  can  have  no  grudge  against  the  soldiers 
of  a  republic  who  carried  out  his  plans  with  a  per- 
fection and  promptness  of  which  he  could  not  have 
dreamed. 

The  climate  of  the  West  Indies  has  ever  been 
favorable  to  the  preservation  of  spirits,  and  this 
haunted  castle  of  San  Juan  has  counterparts  in  the 
island,  and  in  other  islands,  and  the  ghosts  are  not 
always  victims  of  the  Spaniards,  either.  The  ap- 
pearance of  spectres  in  the  New  World  was  almost 
contemporary  with  Columbus.  Indeed,  one  of  the 
most  startling  of  supernatural  appearances  occurred 
in  the  town  he  founded, — the  town  of  Isabella, 
Hayti,  the  first  white  man's  city  in  America.  It 
was  created  by  the  great  navigator  on  his  second 
voyage,  but  it  remained  for  only  a  few  years  on  the 
map.  The  dons  whom  he  brought  with  him  re- 
fused to  work,  even  when  the  colony  was  starving, 
and  reported. him  in  Spain  as  a  tyrant  for  asking 
them  to  put  up  their  own  shelters,  cook  their  own 
food,  and  grind  their  own  flour.  They  would 
not  even  work  in  the  mines  where  gold  could 
be  seen  in  the  river  sands,  because  they  had  ex- 
pected to  pick  up  the  metal  in  lumps,  or  force  it 
from  the  natives  in  such  quantities  that  each  ad- 
venturer might  return  with  a  bushel.  Hardship, 
illness,  short  commons,  the  need  of  occasional  labor, 
the  heart-breaks  over  the  gold  failure,  the  retaliations 
70 


In  the  Caribbean 

of  the  natives  for  the  cruelties  and  injustices  of  the 
invaders,  led  to  the  rapid  decline  of  the  city  of 
Isabella.  Its  foundations  may  still  be  visible ;  at 
least  they  were  a  few  years  ago  ;  but  it  is  peopled 
only  by  ghosts.  Some  years  after  it  had  been 
deserted,  two  Spaniards,  who  had  been  hunting  in 
that  part  of  the  island,  entered  its  ruined  streets. 
They  had  heard  from  the  Indians  of  strange,  boom- 
ing voices  that  echoed  among  its  dead  houses,  but 
had  dismissed  this  tale  as  invention  or  fancy.  The 
sun  was  low  and  mists  were  gathering.  As  the 
hunters  turned  a  corner  they  were  astonished  to  see 
a  company  of  cavaliers  drawn  up  in  double  rank, 
as  if  for  parade,  sword  on  hip,  plumed  hats  aslant, 
big  booted,  leather  jacketed,  grim,  and  silent.  The 
two  men  asked  whence  they  had  come.  The 
cavaliers  spoke  no  word,  but  all  together  lifting  their 
hats  in  salute,  lifted  their  heads  off  with  them, 
then  melted  into  air.  They  were  the  dead  of  the 
fated  town.  The  two  spectators  fainted  with 
horror,  and  did  not  recover  their  peace  of  mind  in 
many  days. 

POLICE    ACTIVITY     IN    HUMACAO 

FOR  three  centuries  a  Spanish  convict  station  was 
kept  in  Porto  Rico.     The  unpleasant  and  un- 
desirable found,  not  a  welcome  here,  but  a  more  con- 
genial company  than  in  the  home  land.      Life  was 
easier  because  one  needed  less  food  and  clothes,  and 
7* 


Myths  and  Legends 

they  were  furnished  by  the  authorities,  anyway. 
What  with  the  convicts  and  discontented  slaves,  it  is  a 
wonder  that  any  sort  of  comfort  or  safety  existed  on 
the  island,  and  especially  that  so  much  of  pleasant 
social  life  was  to  be  found  in  the  cities.  Those  who 
knew  Porto  Rico  in  those  days,  however,  say  that 
class  distinctions  were  not  sharply  marked ;  that  the 
master  was  kind  to  the  slave,  and  the  slave  felt  as 
if  he  were  a  member  of  his  master's  family,  rather 
than  a  dependent ;  that  the  two  were  often  seen  at 
the  cockpit  sitting  elbow  to  elbow,  kneeling  side 
by  side  in  the  same  church,  greeting  the  same  friends 
or  cracking  the  heads  of  the  same  enemies  before 
the  church  doors  at  Epiphany,  and  in  the  humbler 
homes  sitting  at  the  same  table. 

In  those  simple  times  the  robber  gangs  were  a 
great  vexation.  Killing  was  something  to  grow 
used  to,  and  a  disagreement  over  cards  was  liable  to 
result  in  having  one's  head  snipped  off  by  a  ma- 
chete ;  but  to  be  robbed  of  one's  machete,  or  of 
one's  jug  of  rum,  or  of  one's  only  trousers,  was  a 
sad  affliction,  and  soldiers  and  police  were  as  active 
as  Spanish  functionaries  could  persuade  themselves 
to  be,  in  running  down — or  walking  down — these 
outlaws.  It  is  said  that  the  detectives  were  espe- 
cially amusing.  They  would  go  about  in  such  ob- 
vious disguises,  with  misfit  wigs,  window-glass 
spectacles,  and  the  costumes  of  priests  or  notaries, 
that  a  robber  could  barely  keep  his  countenance 
when  he  met  them  in  the  street.  The  thief  always 
72 


In  the  Caribbean 

escaped,  either  through  the  incompetence  of  the 
officers,  or  by  sharing  his  profits  with  them. 

But  there  was  one  fellow  who  made  such  trouble 
th*t  the  police  began  to  chafe  beneath  the  public 
criticism.  To  impugn  their  honor  did  not  hurt  them 
much,  though  they  ruffled  a  good  deal  under  it,  but 
to  threaten  them  with  reduction  of  pay  or  removal 
was  a  serious  matter ;  so  the  chief  of  the  San  Juan 
constabulary  bestirred  himself,  after  a  particularly 
daring  robbery  had  occurred  in  his  bailiwick,  the 
rogue  making  off  with  six  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  jewelry.  He  got  safely  away  from  town  and  was 
traced  to  Humacao,  where  his  footprints  were  found 
leading  to  the  door  of  a  small,  tumble-down,  de- 
serted house,  and  none  of  these  prints  could  be 
seen  with  toes  pointing  away  from  it.  The  chief 
dismissed  his  men  and  prepared  to  conduct  a  siege. 
He  had  a  dagger,  a  machete,  two  pistols,  and  a  gun, 
with  a  box  of  ammunition.  Thus  equipped  he 
went  to  the  front  door,  gave  it  a  sounding  whack 
with  the  flat  of  his  machete,  and  bawled,  "  Open, 
in  the  name  of  the  law  !" 

There  was  no  response,  so  he  struck  his  weapon 
impatiently  against  the  panels  two  or  three  times 
and  called  on  the  bandit  to  emerge  and  give  him- 
self up.  Again  there  was  no  reply.  A  bolder 
move  was  necessary.  He  pushed  open  the  window, 
crouching  down  outside,  that  he  might  not  become 
a  target  for  the  fellow,  who  was  probably  lurking  in 
the  dark  interior,  and  after  calling  on  him  for  a  third 
73 


Myths  and  Legends 

time  to  appear  and  go  to  jail,  he  thrust  his  firearms 
in  and  began  to  blaze  in  all  directions  over  the  floor. 

After  emptying  the  pistols  and  gun  he  shouted, 
"  If  you  don't  come  out  I'll  blow  you  to  the  bad 
place,  for  I  have  one  hundred  and  fifty  cartridges 
here,  and  I  can  surely  shoot  you." 

All  this  time  the  robber  had  been  lying  on  the 
floor,  just  below  the  window,  very  flat  and  very 
still.  As  the  chief  did  not  show  himself  to  take 
aim,  but  reached  up  from  his  kneeling  position  and 
fired  at  random,  the  bold,  bad  man  in-doors  began 
to  feel  a  return  of  confidence.  He  waited  until  a 
second  fusillade  was  over,  when  he  slipped  softly 
through  the  back  door,  went  around  to  the  front, 
waited  until  a  third  volley  had  been  fired,  when  he 
pounced  on  the  chief  from  behind,  and  in  a  trice 
had  a  stout  rope  around  him.  In  a  few  seconds 
more  he  had  the  astonished  and  indignant  functionary 
tied  securely  to  one  of  the  posts  of  the  veranda. 
Then,  calmly  taking  possession  of  the  weapons,  he 
lifted  his  hat,  wished  the  officer  a  very  good  day 
and  a  pleasant  siesta,  and  sauntered  off  to  some  other 
town  where  the  police  were  still  less  active.  . 

THE    CHURCH    IN    PORTO    RICO 

IF  the  Spanish  colonies  have  been  immoral,  it  must 
be  granted  that  they  have  been  religious.     This 
fact  has  made  them  easier  to  govern,  for  the  words 
of    the    priests   and   friars    have   been  accepted    as 
74 


In  the  Caribbean 

divinely  inspired  at  times  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
they  have  been  inspired  only  by  the  governor  or  the 
garrison  colonel.  The  church  in  the  colonies  is 
nothing  like  the  modern  and  American  institution 
that  we  know.  It  is  a  survival  from  the  Middle 
Ages.  Yet  it  has  shown  shrewdness  in  Porto  Rico, 
Cuba,  and  the  Philippines,  its  prosperity  proving 
that  the  Spaniard  can  be  a  thrifty  mortal  whether 
he  wears  a  monkish  cowl  or  a  military  uniform. 
Much  money  has  been  demanded  by  the  church, 
but  much  of  it  has  been  honestly  spent  in  the  beau- 
tifying of  altars  and  the  dressing  of  the  statues. 
Our  Lady  of  the  Remedies,  in  the  Church  of  La 
Providencia,  San  Juan,  for  example,  wears  a  cloak 
worth  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  is  emblazoned 
with  twenty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  jewels  ;  but 
then,  she  is  the  patron  of  the  island.  The  priests 
have  been  quick  to  see  an  advantage  in  benefits  or 
disasters  and  have  often  impressed  the  natives  by 
lessons  drawn  from  natural  phenomena.  Thus,  in 
1867,  a  conspiracy  for  the  overthrow  of  Spanish 
rule  had  been  organized,  and  violence  was  hourly 
expected  :  but  on  the  eve  of  an  uprising  the  island 
was  shaken  by  an  earthquake.  The  priests  made 
the  most  of  this,  assuring  the  natives  that  it  was  a 
warning  from  heaven  never  to  interfere  with  Span- 
iards ;  so  the  insurrectos  stealthily  laid  down  their 
arms  and  stole  away  to  their  various  substitutes  for 
employment,  leaving  their  Lexington  unfought. 
In  one  way  this  willingness  to  keep  out  of  rights  has 
75 


Myths  and  Legends 

been  a  bad  thing  for  the  island,  because  insurrection 
became  a  matter  of  business  with  some  of  the  nntives. 
They  used  it  as  a  mode  of  blackmail.  These  insur- 
rectos  would  throw  a  wealthy  planter  into  a  state  of 
alarm  by  pretending  to  hold  meetings  on  his  premises. 
He  knew  that  if  the  authorities  got  wind  of  this  it 
might  go  hard  with  him,  for  if  he  were  suspected 
of  being  a  member  of  a  lodge  of  the  White  Saber 
or  the  Red  Hand,  it  could  mean  imprisonment, 
perhaps  death ;  so  he  paid  the  revolution  some- 
thing to  move  on  and  occur  on  some  other  man's 
land.  By  levying  thus  on  fear  and  policy  a  few 
members  of  an  alleged  junta  managed  to  live  quite 
comfortably  without  work,  and  it  is  whispered  that 
the  padres  of  certain  villages  received  their  share  of 
the  reluctant  tributes. 

Porto  Rico  has  been  the  place  of  abode  of  some 
noted  fathers  of  the  church,  including  two  martyrs 
who  were  canonized  by  Pius  IX.  as  saints  :  Charles 
Spinola  and  JeromS  de  Angelis.  They  left  Portugal 
for  Goa  in  1596,  but  having  been  blown  far  out  of 
their  course,  they  put  in  at  this  island  to  repair  their 
ship,  and  there  for  two  months  they  preached  with 
success.  On  their  return  to  Lisbon  they  were  cap- 
tured by  English  pirates,  who  treated  them  kindly, 
however,  and  set  them  safely  down  in  London. 
They  reached  Portugal  eventually,  and.  ended  their 
work  in  Japan,  where  the  people  killed  them.  These 
and  other  saints  receive  the  prayers  of  the  people  on 
stated  occasions,  for  in  Porto  Rico  the  saints  have 
76 


In  the  Caribbean 

not  only  their  special  days,  but  their  special  crops, 
and  guard  them  from  special  injuries.  Thus,  the 
farmer  prays  to  St.  James,  it  is  said,  when  he  asks 
for  deliverance  from  tobacco-worms,  while  he  must 
address  St.  Martial  if  he  wants  to  free  his  field 
from  ants. 

Of  the  holy  hermits  who  have  resided  on  the 
island,  several  have  dwelt  in  the  caves  where  Caribs 
or  Arawaks  buried  their  dead,  but  the  best-known 
shrine  is  that  of  Hormigueros.  The  Church  of  Our 
Lady  of  Monserrate,  which  crowns  a  hill  and  is  a 
conspicuous  landmark,  is  said  to  have  been  copied 
from  the  chapel  of  a  Benedictine  monastery  in  Bar- 
celona, which  is  famous  in  Spain  for  its  statue  of  the 
Virgin,  carved  by  St.  Luke  and  carried  to  Barcelona  in 
the  year  50  by  St.  Peter.  The  Monserrate  church 
was  founded  in  1640  by  a  poor  farmer.  He  had  been 
ploughing  over  the  hill-top,  though  weak  with  fever, 
and  before  he  could  finish  his  work  he  fell  to  the 
ground  exhausted.  After  he  had  partly  recovered, 
and  had  gone  back  to  the  plough,  he  turned  a  tile  up 
from  the  earth,  on  which  was  engraved  a  portrait  of 
the  Virgin,  and  no  sooner  had  he  taken  this  object 
into  his  hands  than  his  pain,  his  fever,  his  lassitude 
disappeared.  Convinced  that  the  relic  was  sacred, 
he  carried  it  to  his  priest,  and  on  that  very  day  he 
gave  the  land  he  had  ploughed  for  a  votive  church. 
It  has  become  the  best  known  sanctuary  in  Porto 
Rico,  for  the  large  painting  of  the  Virgin,  copied 
from  the  smaller  portrait  on  the  tile,  is  just  as  potent 
77 


Myths  and  Legends 

as  the  original  in  curing  diseases.  In  the  last  half- 
century  a  hundred  miracles  have  been  performed, 
and  the  silver  and  golden  arms,  legs,  ears,  eyes, 
fingers,  feet,  livers,  and  hearts  that  have  been  given 
to  the  church,  in  thanks  and  testimony,  amount  in 
value  to  sixty  thousand  dollars ;  for  a  patient  who 
has  been  cured  or  helped  is  expected  to  send  a  little 
model,  in  precious  metal,  of  the  part  of  him  that 
needed  mending.  At  intervals  these  offerings  are 
melted  up  for  the  altar  service  and  decorations,  and 
few  churches  in  America  have  such  resplendent  can- 
dlesticks, chalices,  draperies  and  vestments.  The  altar 
is  of  silver  plates,  and  the  gold  cross  upon  it  weighs 
thirteen  pounds.  Pilgrims  to  Hormigueros  go  from 
all  parts  of  the  West  Indies.  They  are  lodged,  free 
of  charge,  in  an  old  house  behind  the  church,  each 
cripple  or  invalid  receiving  a  bed  and  chair,  but  no 
food.  The  pilgrims  must  supply  their  own  suste- 
nance. On  entering  the  church,  in  procession,  they 
are  sprinkled  with  water  from  the  Jordan,  and  then 
kneel  before  the  cross,  where  the  cures  are  worked. 

THE   MERMAIDS 

IN  dime  museums  and  county  fairs  one  may  still 
find  among  the  "  attractions"  a  mermaid,  dried 
and  stuffed,  consisting  of  the  upper  half  of  a  monkey 
artlessly  joined  to  the  lower  half  or  two-thirds  of  a 
codfish,  the  monkey's  head  usually  adorned  with  a 
handful  of  oakum  or  horse-hair.     When  this  kind 
78 


In  the  Caribbean 

of  thing  was  first  exhibited  by  the  lamented  P.  T. 
Barnum,  it  is  just  possible  that  some  bumpkin  really 
believed  it  to  be  a  mermaid,  but  the  invention  has 
become  so  common  of  late  that  it  is  found  in  the 
curio-shops  of  every  town,  and  as  an  eye-catching 
device  is  often  put  into  show-cases  by  some  merchant 
who  deals  in  anything  rather  than  mermaids.  Trite 
and  ridiculous  as  this  patchwork  appears,  it  symbol- 
izes a  belief  of  full  three  thousand  years.  Men 
have  always  been  prone  to  fill  with  imaginations 
what  they  have  never  sounded  with  their  senses,  and 
it  is  to  this  tendency  we  owe  poetry  and  the  arts. 
The  sea  was  a  mystery,  and  is  so  still.  It  was  easy 
to  people  its  twilight  depths  with  forms  of  grace 
and  beauty  and  power,  for  surely  the  denizens 
taken  from  it  were  strange  enough  to  warrant  strange 
belfefs. 

And  so  the  old  faith  in  men  and  women  who 
lived  beneath  the  water  was  passed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  and  from  race- to  race,  changing 
but  little  from  age  to  age.  Ulysses  stopped  the  ears 
of  his  crew  with  wax  that  they  should  not  hear  the 
sirens  luring  them  toward  the  rocks  as  his  ship  sailed 
by,  and  knowing  the  magic  of  their  song  had  him- 
self bound  to  the  mast,  so,  hearing  the  ravishing 
music,  he  might  not  escape  if  he  would.  In  a  later 
day  we  hear  of  the  Lorelei  singing  on  her  rock, 
striking  chords  on  her  golden  harp,  and,  as  the  rap- 
tured fisherman  steered  close,  with  eyes  filled  by  her 
beauty  and  ears  by  her  music,  he  had  a  moment's 
79 


Myths  and  Legends 

consciousness  of  a  skull  leering  at  him  and  harsh 
laughter  clattering  in  echoes  along  the  shore ;  then 
his  boat  struck  and  filled,  and  the  dark  flood  curtained 
oft  the  sky.  Wagner  has  made  familiar  the  legend 
of  the  Rhine  daughters,  singing  impossibly  under 
the  river  as  they  swim  about  the  reef  of  gold, — the 
treasure  stolen  by  the  gnome,  Alberich,  who  in  that 
act  brought  envy,  strife,  greed,  and  injustice  into  the 
world,  and  accomplished  the  destruction  of  the  gods 
themselves.  The  wild  tales  of  Britain  and  Brittany, 
of  thefts  and  revenges  by  the  sea-creatures,  are 
among  the  oldest  of  their  myths,  and  when  we  cross 
to  our  side  of  the  sea,  the  ocean  people  are  close  in 
our  wake  and  they  follow  us  through  the  fresh  waters 
and  far  out  in  the  Pacific. 

Among  the  Antilles,  as  in  the  South  Seas,  the 
tritons  blow  their  conchs  and  shake  their  shaggy 
heads,  while  the  daughters  of  the  deep  gather,  at 
certain  seasons,  on  the  water,  or  about  some  favorite 
rock,  and  sing.  Always,  in  Eastern  versions  of  .the 
myth,  there  is  music,  save  in  the  case  of  Melusina, 
who  became  a  half  fish  only  on  Saturdays,  when 
her  husband  was  supposed  not  to  be  watching, 
and  this  music  follows  the  myth  around  the  world. 
Among  the  vague  traditions  of  certain  Alaskan  In- 
dians is  one  of  an  immigration  from  Asia,  under  lead 
of  "  a  creature  resembling  a  man,  with  long,  green 
hair  and  beard,  whose  lower  part  was  a  fish;  or, 
rather,  each  leg  a  fish."  He  charmed  them  so  with 
his  singing  that  they  followed  him,  unconsciously, 
80 


In  the  Caribbean 

and  reached  America.  We  find  in  Canada  the  tale 
of  a  dusky  Undine,  a  soulless  water  sprite,  who, 
through  love  of  a  mortal,  became  human.  Some  of 
the  beings  of  the  sea  were  of  more  than  human 
power  and  authority, — gods,  in  fact ;  barbarian 
Neptunes.  Such  was  the  Pacific  god,  Rau  Raku, 
who,  being  entangled  in  a  fishing-net,  was  lugged 
to  the  surface,  sputtering  tremendously.  Yet  he  had 
no  grudge  against  the  fisherman.  That  trembling 
unfortunate  was  too  small  for  his  revenge.  He 
would  devastate  the  whole  earth  to  which  he  had 
been  thus  unceremoniously  dragged,  and,  bidding 
his  captor  take  himself  away  while  he  made  trouble, 
he  deluged  the  globe,  until  all  upon  it  had  perished, 
except  the  fish,  the  fisherman,  and  a  few  land  animals 
that  the  sole  human  survivor  had  taken  to  a  lofty 
island  with  him. 

The  mermaid  of  story  was  a  damsel  fair  to  view, 
until  she  had  risen  from  the  waves  so  as  to  show  her 
fish-like  ending.  It  was  Her  habit  to  sit  on  sunny 
beaches,  comb  her  golden  hair  with  a  golden  comb, 
and  sing  delightfully,  though  her  wilder  sisters  would 
perch  on  juts  of  rock  on  lonely  islands  and  scream 
in  frightening  ways  when  a  gale  was  coming.  When 
the  sea  maidens  went  ashore  they  sometimes  met 
sailors  and  fishermen,  and  if  they  liked  these  stran- 
gers a  frank  avowal  of  love  was  made ;  for  it  is 
always  leap  year  in  the  ocean.  It  was  a  most  un- 
comfortable position  for  a  mortal  to  be  placed  in, 
especially  one  who  had  a  wife  waiting  for  him  at 
6  81 


Myths  and  Legends 

home,  because  if  their  addresses  were  rejected  the 
mermaids  were  liable  to  throw  stones,  and  always 
with  fatal  results ;  or  they  would  brew  mists,  and 
set  loose  awful  storms  ;  yet,  if  the  man  who  inspired 
this  affection  was  not  coy,  and  yielded  to  one  of 
these  slippery  denizens,  she  dragged  him  under  the 
sea  forthwith,  unless  he  could  persuade  her  to  com- 
promise on  a  cave  or  a  lonely  rock  as  a  home,  for  it 
is  reputed  that  mortals  have  formally  wedded  them 
and  raised  amphibious  families.  On  the  Isle  of  Man 
they  tell  of  one  caught  in  a  net,  who  was  woman  to 
the  waist  and  fish  as  to  the  rest  of  her.  As  she 
sulked  in  captivity,  refusing  to  eat  or  speak, — perhaps 
they  forgot  to  offer  raw  fish  for  her  supper, — it  was 
decided  to  let  her  escape ;  and  as  she  wriggled  over 
the  beach  she  was  heard  to  tell  her  people  (in 
Manx  ?),  as  they  arose  to  greet  her,  that  the  earth- 
men  did  nothing  wonderful  except  to  throw  away 
water  in  which  they  had  boiled  eggs ! 

The  home  of  the  mermaids  was  at  the  bottom  of 
the  deep.  A  diver,  who  said  he  had  reached  it,  re- 
ported a  region  of  clear  water,  lighted  from  below 
by  great,  white  stones  and  pyramids  of  crystal. 
These  haunts  contained  bowers  of  coral,  gardens  of 
bright  sea  weeds  and  mosses,  tables  and  chairs  of 
amber,  floors  of  iridescent  shell  and  pearls,  gems 
strewn  about  the  jasper  grottoes, — diamonds,  rubies, 
topazes, — and  the  sea  people  had  combs  and  orna- 
ments of  gold.  Columbus  was  disappointed  in  the 
mermaids  that  he  saw  in  the  Caribbean.  They 
82 


In  the  Caribbean 

were  not,  to  his  eyes,  so  handsome  as  the  romancers 
had  alleged,  nor  were  their  voices  sweet.  The 
doubters  claim  that  he  was  asleep  when  the  mer- 
maids appeared,  and  that  he  saw  nothing  but  the 
sea  cow,  or  manatee,  which  is  neither  tuneful  nor 
pretty. 

THE    ABORIGINES 

IN  following  the  southern  coast  of  Cuba,  Col- 
umbus supposed  he  was  working  toward  India. 
He  died  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  he  had  discovered 
a  new  world,  and  he  gave  up  the  exploration  of 
this  island  when  almost  in  sight  of  open  water  at 
its  western  end.  "Of  the  first  inhabitants  of  Cuba 
(called  by  some  Macaca,  and  by  others  Caboi, 
"  land  of  the  dead,"  for  the  people  killed  their 
prisoners),  little  is  known,  for  they  were  exter- 
minated as  a  distinct  race,  and  their  few  relics  were 
disregarded  as  worthless  or  destroyed  as  idolatrous. 
It  is  believed,  however,  that  they  had  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  arts ;  they  worked  gold  into  ornaments, 
and  copper  and  stone  into  tools  and  weapons,  and 
they  wore  helmets  of  feathers,  like  those  of  the 
Hawaiian  chiefs.  Near  Bayamo  have  been  found 
farming  tools,  painted  pottery,  and  little  statuettes 
supposed  to  represent  gods.  Their  houses  were 
hardly  more  than  shelters,  frames  of  bamboo  or 
light  boughs,  though  they  were  prettily  environed 
by  walks  and  flowers,  ana  their  clothing — some- 
times of  fur,  oftener  of  leaves  and  coarse  cloth — 
83 


Myths  and  Legends 

was  of  the  scantiest.  Heavy  dresses  in  a  tropic  coun- 
try, or  in  a  temperate  country  in  tropic  weather, 
are  manifestly  absurd. 

As  on  the  other  Antilles,  the  people  of  Cuba 
were  brown,  broad,  straight-haired,  flat-faced,  and 
decorated  with  slashes  and  tattooing.  They  were 
singularly  mild,  honest,  and  trusting.  They  were 
frightened  by  the  Spanish  ships,  believing  them 
to  be  great  birds  that  had  come  down  from  the 
sky,  bringing  the  white  adventurers  in  their  brave 
array ;  but  when  Columbus  had  sent  a  few  beads 
and  hawks'  bells  to  them,  they  expressed  their 
confidence  and  delight  in  a  hundred  ways,  swam 
and  rowed  about  his  caravel  offering  fish  and  fruit, 
not  in  trade,  but  as  gifts,  and  when  a  crowd  of 
hungry  sailors  ashore  invited  themselves  to  a  feast 
that  had  been  prepared  for  a  religious  ceremony  the 
Indians  made  no  objection,  because  they  could  pre- 
pare one  like  it  by  another  night's  work.  Food, 
indeed,  was  free  to  whoso  needed  it,  like  air  and 
water,  and  no  stranger  needed  to  go  hungry. 
While  the  Spaniards  did  little  to  invite  their  con- 
fidence, were  insolent  to  most  other  people  and  even 
to  one  another,  the  Indians  set  an  example  of  charity 
in  conduct  and  in  faith.  The  dons  were  intolerant 
of  all  religions  except  their  own,  whereas  the  Cubans 
were  quick  to  realize  that  the  performance  of  the 
mass  was  of  some  sacred  significance,  and  they  pre- 
served a  reverent  attitude  throughout  a  ceremony 
whose  details  they  did  not  understand.  When  mis- 
84 


In  the  Caribbean 

sionary  work  had  fairly  begun  it  is  said  that  some 
Spaniards  drove  Indians  into  the  water,  forcibly  bap- 
tized them,  then  cut  their  throats  that  they  might  not 
repent  their  acceptance  of  the  true  faith.  In  their 
own  belief  there  appeared  to  be  a  purgatory  and  a  par- 
adise, but  no  hell  or  devil ;  and,  as  beliefs  reveal  the 
character  of  the  people  who  hold  them,  it  speaks 
well  for  the  Cubans  that  the  grewsome  images  in- 
voked by  certain  mediaeval  theologians  had  never 
been  created  in  their  more  generous  imaginations. 
When  a  soul  left  the  body  it  had  two  journeys  be- 
fore it :  one  to  a  dismal  place,  where  the  cruel  and 
unjust  awaited  ;  the  other  to  a  fair  land,  like  the  best 
of  earth,  where  all  was  pleasant  and  peaceful ;  for, 
in  spite  of  the  warlike  undertakings  made  necessary 
by  irruptions  of  the  fierce  Caribs,  these  people  held 
to  peace  as  the  highest  good. 

Of  these  Indians  hardly  a  dozen  are  remembered 
by  their  names,  but  the  chief  Hatuey  was  revered 
among  them  for  his  courage  and  his  military  skill. 
He  had  fled  from  Hayti  to  Cuba  in  a  vain  hope  of 
escaping  his  white  enemy,  and  counselled  the  na- 
tives to  throw  all  their  gold  into  the  sea,  that  the 
Spanish  might  not  linger  on  their  coasts.  He  might 
have  been  the  one  who  ordered  gold  to  be  melted 
and  poured  down  the  throats  of  his  prisoners,  that 
for  one  and  the  last  time  they  might  have  enough. 
The  Spaniards  caught  him  and  burned  him  to  death 
at  Baracoa.  As  he  stood  on  the  logs  in  chains,  just 
before  the  flames  were  applied,  the  friars  pressed 
85 


Myths  and  Legends 

about  him  and  earnestly  advised  him  to  become  a 
Christian,  that  he  might  not  be  required  to  roast  in 
hell,  which  would  be  worse  than  the  torture  he  was 
about  to  endure,  and  which  would  last  forever.  If 
only  he  would  be  baptized  he  could  go  direct  to 
heaven.  "  The  white  man's  heaven  ?"  he  asked. 
"  Yes."  "  Are  there  any  Spaniards  in  that  heaven  ?" 
"  Oh,  yes,  many."  "  Then  light  the  fire." 

Columbus  was  the  more  convinced  that  he  had 
reached  Asia  because  the  name  of  one  Cuban  prov- 
ince, Mangon,  he  assumed  to  be  Mangi,  a  rich  dis- 
trict of  China.  That  its  people  had  tails,  like  mon- 
keys, was  nothing  against  this  theory ;  that  foot- 
prints of  alligators  should  be  the  tracks  of  griffins, 
which  had  the  bodies  of  lions  and  the  wings  and 
heads  of  eagles,  was  quite  in  order ;  but  most  con- 
vincing of  all  was  the  discovery  by  an  archer,  who 
had  entered  a  wood  in  search  of  game,  of  thirty  men 
with  pale  faces,  armed  with  clubs  and  lances,  and 
habited  in  white  gowns,  like  friars.  The  man  fled 
in  fear.  When  his  comrades  returned  with  him  to 
find  this  white  company,  not  a  human  being  ap- 
peared to  them,  and,  except  for  the  chatter  of  birds 
and  the  clicking  of  land-crabs  as  they  scuttled  over 
the  stones,  the  place  was  still.  The  coast  Indians 
were  understood  to  say  that  among  the  mountains 
dwelt  a  chief  whom  they  called  a  saint,  who  wore  a 
flowing  robe  of  white  and  never  spoke  aloud,  order- 
ing his  subjects  by  signs.  This  was  surely  Prester 
John,  the  shadowy  king  of  a  shadowy  kingdom,  of 
86 


In  the  Caribbean 

whom  much  was  said  and  written  a  few  centuries 
ago.  He  was  declared  by  one  author  to  rule  a  part 
of  India  and  was  reputed  to  be  a  Nestorian  priest 
who  had  made  himself  king  of  the  Naymans.  Other 
travellers  placed  him  in  China,  Persia,  and  Tim- 
buctoo.  In  a  battle  with  the  infidel  Tartars  Prester 
John  mounted  a  number  of  bronze  men  on  horse- 
back, each  figure  belching  clouds  of  smoke  from  a 
fire  of  punk  within,  and  lashed  the  horses  against 
the  enemy,  filling  tjiem  with  such  terror,  and  so 
veiling  in  smoke  the  dash  of  his  flesh  and  blood 
cavalry,  that  his  victory  was  easy.  So,  it  was  a 
great  satisfaction  to  Columbus  to  think  that  he  had 
reached  the  confines  of  a  Christian  kingdom. 

While  working  through  the  thousand  little  islands 
off  the  southern  coast  of  Cuba,  that  he  called  the 
Queen's  Gardens,  Columbus  found  added  reason  for 
believing  that  this  was  the  Asiatic  shore,  and  he 
hoped  shortly  to  reach  Cipango,  or  Japan,  where 
pearls  and  precious  stones  abounded,  and  where  the 
king  abode  in  a  palace  covered  with  plates  of  gold 
more  than  an  inch  thick.  The  attempts  of  the 
Mongols  to  overrun  the  Asian  islands  were  defeated, 
because  the  Cipangalese  were  invulnerable,  having 
placed  between  the  skin  and  the  flesh  of  their  right 
arms  a  little  stone  that  made  them  safe  against 
swords,  arrows,  clubs,  and  slings.  The  people  of 
Cuba  fell  too  easy  a  prey  to  Spanish  blades — of 
both  sorts — to  allow  a  belief  like  this  to  last  long. 

That  Columbus  thought  he  was  approaching  the 
S7 


Myths  and  Legends 

earthly  paradise,  the  mountain-guarded  Eden  where 
our  first  parents  lived,  when  he  neared  these  lovely 
shores,  inhaled  the  fragrance  of  fruits  and  flowers, 
heard  the  cries  of  birds  and  saw  the  flash  of  bright 
waters,  is  probable.  That  paradise  he  sought.  The 
serpent  of  oppression  and  wrong  has  left  it,  and  as 
America  comes  into  her  own,  that  paradise  shall  be. 

THE   CARIES 

HAD  it  not  been  for  the  Caribs  the  Antilleans 
would  have  led  a  placid  existence.  Those 
warlike  and  predacious  Indians  would  not  keep  the 
peace,  nor  would  they  allow  other  people  to  do  so. 
Though  they  had  their  capital  in  Guadaloupe,  they 
extended  their  military  enterprises  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Hayti,  Jamaica,  and  the 
lesser  islands  suffered  from  their  assaults.  They 
were  trained  to  fight  from  childhood,  and  attained  to 
great  proficiency  in  arms.  Being  active  voyagers, 
they  had  some  knowledge  of  astronomy.  When 
operating  in  the  waters  of  a  hostile  country  it  was 
their  custom  to  mask  their  boats  with  palm  leaves, 
for  in  this  guise  they  stole  upon  the  enemy  the 
easier.  Like  the  red  men  of  our  plains,  they 
painted  their  faces,  and,  indeed,  they  retained  many 
of  the  practices  common  to  our  tribes.  In  their 
traditions  they  came  from  the  North,  like  other 
strong  races,  their  old  home  being  among  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  and  they  conquered  their  way  from  Florida 


In  the -Caribbean 

to  Brazil.  Their  tribe,  they  say,  grew  up  from 
stones  that  their  remote  ancestors  had  sowed  in  the 
soil.  They  buried  their  dead  in  a  sitting  posture 
that  they  might  be  ready  to  leap  up  when  the  spirit 
came  for  them,  and  they  faced  the  sunrise  that  they 
might  see  the  day  of  resurrection  the  quicker. 

In  their  mythology  the  first  men  came  down 
from  heaven  on  clouds  to  purify  the  world  and 
make  it  as  clean  as  trie  moon ;  but,  while  they  were 
looking  about  at  this  untidy  planet,  the  clouds 
floated  back  and  they  were  left  in  a  sorry  plight, 
for  they  had  brought  no  provisions  with  them. 
Their  hunger  having  sharpened  so  as  to  become  un- 
bearable, they  scraped  up  clay  and  baked  it  to  make 
it  less  tough  and  more  eatable,  and  were  grieved 
when  it  came  out  of  the  fire  as  hard  as  stone.  Then 
the  birds  and  beasts  had  pity  on  them,  and  led  them 
to  the  groves  and  fields  where  they  could  find  fruit, 
nuts,  maize,  and  yams.  One  tree  was  of  such  size 
that  they  chopped  it  with  stone  axes  for  ten  months 
before  it  fell,  and  they  ate  all  of  it.  Beneath  its 
roots,  in  a  cave,  lived  the  Water  Mother,  who,  pos- 
sibly because  she  was  angered  by  the  destruction  of 
the  tree,  released  a  flood  that  would  have  covered 
the  earth  had  not  a  rock  fallen  into  the  throat  of  the 
cavern  and  stopped  the  flow.  This  rock  had  life  and 
speech.  It  warned  the  new  race  that  when  its 
founders  should  grow  old  they  were  to  expect  a 
deluge.  Until  that  appeared  they  should  find  in  the 
stone  their  best  adviser  and  protector,  and  if  they 
89 


Myths  and  Legends 

would  pray  to  it,  giving  a  deaf  ear  to  the  wood- 
devils,  it  would  cure  them  of  illness,  gray  hair,  and 
age.  After  a  time  came  the  monkey  out  of  the 
woods,  beguiling  and  wheedling,  while  at  every 
chance,  with  a  monkey's  love  of  mischief,  he  worked 
at  the  stone,  trying  to  dislodge  it  from  the  mouth  of 
the  cave.  At  last  he  succeeded,  and  out  poured  the 
flood.  An  old  woman  ran  to  a  palm  that  touched 
the  sky  with  its  vast  leaves,  and  climbed  with  fever- 
ish haste,  but  fright  and  fatigue  brought  her  to  a  stop 
when  half-way  up,  and  she  hardened  to  stone,  thus 
blocking  the  way  to  all  behind  her,  who,  when  they 
touched  her,  became  stone  likewise.  Some  scram- 
bled down,  splashed  through  the  rising  waters,  and 
reached  another  palm  tree,  which  they  climbed  to 
its  top,  and  so  saved  their  lives. 

As  the  waters  were  subsiding,  Amalwaka  came 
sailing  across  the  ocean  from  the  east,  ascended  the 
Orinoco,  carved  the  figures  found  near  the  head  of 
that  river,  without  leaving  his  canoe,  smoothed  the 
rugged  hills  and  invented  the  tides,  so  that  men 
might  go  from  place  to  place  on  the  current,  but, 
being  unable  to  make  the  Orinoco  flow  up  stream, 
he  sailed  away  again  into  the  arch  of  the  rising  sun, 
guided  at  night  by  the  constant  star  and  by  the 
tapir  and  Serikoai, — which  is  another  story,  told 
by  the  Arawaks,  to  this  effect :  The  bride  of  Seri- 
koai was  seduced  by  the  tapir  god,  who  had  first 
aroused  her  curiosity  and  interest  by  his  attentions, 
and  had  finally  won  her  love  by  promising  to  put 
90 


In  the  Caribbean 

off  his  swinish  shape  and  reveal  himself  as  a  finer 
being  than  her  husband.  If  only  she  would  follow 
him  to  the  edge  of  the  earth,  where  the  sky  comes 
down,  she  would  see  that  he  was  a  god.  The  poor 
husband  was  crippled  by  the  wife,  that  he  might 
not  follow,  for  she  chopped  off  his  leg  as  he  de- 
scended an  avocado  pear-tree,  in  which  he  had  been 
gathering  fruit  for  her.  He  nearly  bled  to  death, 
but  a  wandering  spirit  revived  him  and  called  his 
mother,  who  healed  the  wound  with  gums  and 
helped  to  make  a  wooden  leg,  on  which  he  stumped 
over  the  earth  in  search  of  his  runaway  wife.  It  is 
known  that  the  aborigines  performed  trepanning 
with  skill,  but  this  is  probably  the  earliest  appearance 
in  an  American  legend  of  a  wooden  leg.  Though  he 
found  no  foot-prints,  it  was  easy  to  trace  the  couple, 
because  avocados  were  springing  up  from  seeds  that 
the  woman  spat  out  as  she  journeyed  on.  At  the 
edge  of  the  earth  he  caught  the  tapir  and  killed 
him  ;  yet  the  creature's  shadow  arose  from  the  body 
and  kept  on  its  flight  with  the  wife.  Straightforth 
she  leaped  into  the  blue  vast,  and  there  she  hangs, 
only  we  call  her  the  Pleiades.  The  brute  is  the 
Hyades.  He  glares  and  winks  with  his  red  eye  : 
Aldebaran.  The  husband  is  Orion,  who  follows 
the  others  through  the  sky. 

The   Caribs  were  a  handsome  people,  and  one 
tradition   narrates  the  madness  that  afflicted  a  gov- 
ernor of  Antigua,  because  of  his  jealousy  of  a  na- 
tive   chief.     In    1640    this    dusky   Paris    stole    the 
9' 


Myths  and  Legends 

English  woman  and  her  child,  and  carried  them  to 
Dominica.  The  governor  pursued.  Arrived  where 
Roseau  now  stands,  he  learned  that  a  captive  woman 
and  he,r  child  had  been  landed  there,  and  had  been 
taken  to  some  stronghold  in  the  forest.  Drops  of 
blood,  pricked  out  by  cactus  thorns  on  the  march, 
formed  a  trail  which  he  was  able  to  follow,  and 
believing  that  they  betokened  murder,  he  killed  all 
the  Caribs  he  encountered.  His  wife  and  boy  were 
safe,  however,  except  for  their  bleeding  feet,  and  he 
found  them  in  the  otherwise  deserted  cabin  of  the 
chief  and  took  them  back  to  Antigua.  The  affair 
preyed  on  his  mind.  He  began  to  doubt  his  wife, 
thinking  she  had  accompanied  the  savage  willingly, 
and  his  jealousy  so  increased  that  his  friends  had  to 
secrete  her,  to  save  her  from  his  wrath.  He  proba- 
bly recovered  his  senses  in  time. 

The  Spaniards  chased  the  Caribs  out  of  several 
of  the  islands.  That  of  Grenada  terminates  on  the 
north  in  a  tall  cliff  called  Le  Morne  des  Sauteurs, 
over  which  the  white  men  compelled  the  flying 
Indians  to  leap  to  their  death.  Not  one  Carib  was 
left  alive  on  this  island. 


SECRET   ENEMIES   IN   THE   HILLS 

THE  brutalities  of  the  Spaniards  who  first  occu- 
pied the  West  Indies  would  seem  incredible 
if  so  many  of  them  had  not  continued  to  our  own 
day.     It  is  estimated  that  half  of  the  natives  of 
92 


In  the  Caribbean 

Porto  Rico  were  killed,  and  within  sixty  or  seventy 
years  after  the  seizure  of  Cuba  its  populace  of 
three  hundred  thousand  had  been  destroyed  or  re- 
moved by  war,  murder,  slavery,  hunting  with  blood- 
hounds, imported  vices  and  diseases,  flight  and  forced 
emigration.  These  natives  are  said  to  have  been  a 
peaceful  and  happy  /ace,  practised  in  the  simpler 
arts,  observing  the  moralities  better  than  their  op- 
pressors, holding  a  faith  in  one  god — a  god  of  good- 
ness, not  of  hate — and  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  and  abstaining  from  useless  forms  and  ceremo- 
nies. They  held  that  when  the  soul  had  left  the 
body  it  went  into  the  woods  and  hills  or  abode  in 
caves,  and  took  its  food  and  drink  as  in  the  flesh. 
When  a  man  calls  out  in  a  solitary  place  among  the 
mountains  and  an  answering  voice  comes  back,  it  is 
not  an  echo,  but  a  wandering  soul  that  speaks. 

Even  the  relics  of  these  folk — the  Cubans  or  Sib- 
oneyes — have  vanished,  save  in  the  instance  of  the 
temple  remains  near  Cobre,  and  an  occasional  caney 
or  mound  of  the  dead,  a  truncated  cone  of  earth 
and  broken  stones.  Some  fossil  skeletons  found  in 
caves,  and  of  an  alleged  age  of  fifty  thousand  years, 
denote  an  ancient  race  of  large,  strong  people. 
There  are  other  skeletons  of  Siboneyes,  Chinese,  and 
negroes  in  the  caves, — victims  of  herding,  slavery, 
fever,  cruelty,  and  suicide.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  of  the  aboriginal  stock  not  a  man  remains. 
Yet  there  are  stories  of  strange  people  who  were 
seen  by  hunters  and  explorers  among  the  mountains, 
93 


Myths  and  Legends 

or  who  peered  out  of  the  jungle  at  the  villagers 
and  planters  and  were  gone  again,  without  track  or 
sound, — people  with  swarthy  faces,  sinewy  forms, 
long  black  hair,  decorations  of  coral  shells  and 
feathers,  and  bracelets,  armlets,  and  anklets  of  gold. 
Almost  from  the  first,  the  conduct  of  the  Spaniard 
toward  his  enemies  and  dependents  was  such  as  to 
earn  for  him  a  permanent  hate ;  so,  when  his  cruelty 
had  been  practised,  and  the  futility  of  opposing  arms 
against  his  heavy  weapons  and  his  coat  of  steel  had 
been  proved,  it  was  natural  that  those  who  escaped 
him  should  keep  as  far  from  reach  as  possible,  and 
it  is  idle  to  suppose  that  he  traversed  the  seven  hun- 
dred and  thirty  miles  of  Cuba's  length,  whipping 
every  forest  and  climbing  every  mountain,  for  no 
more  than  the  pleasure  of  killing.  Negro  slavery 
was  introduced  into  the  New  World  before  its  exist- 
ence had  been  known  in  Spain  for  a  century,  and 
although  the  black  men  have  usually  been  tractable, 
the  severities  of  their  masters  led  to  many  revolts 
and  to  the  organization  of  bands  for  retaliation. 
These  bands  often  degenerated,  and  during  this  cen- 
tury the  Spanish  Antilles  have  been  troubled  by 
companies  of  beggars  and  outlaws,  mostly  blacks  and 
half-breeds,  who  have  robbed  and  murdered  in  the 
dark,  run  off  stock  from  the  farms,  burned  houses 
and  shops,  and  because  of  their  secret  and  cowardly 
methods  have  been  feared  as  much  as  the  Spaniards 
were  hated. 

The  Nanigos  originally  formed  a  secret  order  of 
94 


In  the  Caribbean 

negroes,  banded  for  protection  against  unkind  slave- 
owners and  overseers,  but  feeling  their  power,  and 
being  swayed  by  passion  and  superstition,  they  con- 
stituted, after  a  time,  a  body  correspondent  to  the 
voodoos,  or  wizards,  of  our  Gulf  States.  With 
hideous  incantations,  with  mad  dances,  with  obscene 
songs,  with  the  slaughter  of  animals,  with  oaths  on 
an  altar  and  crucifix,  they  invoked  illness,  ruin,  and 
death  on  their  enemies.  In  time  they  gained  acces- 
sions to  their  fraternity  from  Spanish  residents, — 
thieves,  vagrants,  deserters  from  the  army,  the  half- 
witted and  wrong-hearted  outcasts  from  the  towns, 
— and  the  fantastic  ceremonies  of  the  jungle  came 
to  mean  something  more  to  the  purpose  of  mischief, 
for  the  newer  Nanigos  had  more  skill  and  courage 
than  the  slaves,  and  were  familiar  with  more  sins. 
To  enter  this  order  it  was  required  of  the  candidate 
that  he  steal  a  cock,  kill  it,  and  drink  the  warm 
blood.  A  darker  tale  is  that  they  were  required  to 
drink  human  blood.  In  Havana  this  part  of  the 
initiation  was  performed  on  the  Campo  Marti.  The 
man's  right  nostril  was  pierced,  and  a  skull  and  cross- 
bones  branded  on  his  chest.  It  was  then  expected 
of  him  that  within  fifteen  days  he  would  kill  an 
official  or  a  policeman,  a  white,  black,  or  yellow 
marble,  drawn  by  chance  from  a  globe,  deciding 
whether  he  was  to  slay  a  white  man,  negro,  or  mu- 
latto. When  he  had,  by  this  crime,  attained  to  full 
membership,  a  little  shield  was  given  to  him  which 
he  might  wear  beneath  his  coat,  and  which  was 
95 


Myths  and  Legends 

decorated  with  the  device  of  a  skull  and  bones.  For 
every  murder  he  committed  a  red  stitch  was  put  in 
at  the  edge  of  the  skull.  Once  a  month,  in  the 
dark  of  the  moon,  the  Nanigos  paraded  the  streets 
of  the  towns,  their  naked  forms  painted  fantastically, 
their  faces  ghastly  with  flour,  tramping  and  leaping 
to  the  thud  of  drums  and  clash  of  cymbals,  yelling 
defiance  to  the  military,  brandishing  knives  and 
firing  pistols.  It  was  a  kind  of  thing  that  in  an 
American  city  could  have  happened  for  one  consec- 
utive time,  but  no  more.  In  Havana  the  Spaniards 
were  terrorized.  The  police  refused  to  make  ar- 
rests, lest  they  should  fall  victims  to  the  outlaws. 
One  judge  who  refused  to  liberate  an  assassin  was 
slain  in  his  own  house  by  his  servant. 

As  a  partial  revenge  on  the  Cubans  for  wishing 
liberty  the  Spanish  captains-general  have  at  times 
pardoned  some  hundreds  of  these  rascals  and  set 
them  free  to  prey  on  the  people  ;  while,  in  retalia- 
tion, the  insurgents  adopted  some  of  the  methods  of 
the  Nanigos  and  carried  on  a  guerilla  warfare  that 
neither  troops  nor  trochas  could  abate.  Many  are 
these  more  or  less  bold  spirits  of  the  hills  who  are 
celebrated  in  inland  stories  :  aborigines,  Frenchmen, 
Creoles,  mulattoes,  who  have  gathered  bands  of  reck- 
less fellows  about  them  from  time  to  time  and 
raided  the  Spaniard,  flouting  him  in  his  strongholds, 
pillaging  from  his  farms,  striking  him,  hip  and  thigh, 
and  making  off  to  the  woods  before  he  knew  how 
or  by  whom  he  had  been  struck.  Sometimes  even 
96 


In  the  Caribbean 

the  name  of  the  guerilla  has  been  forgotten,  but  the 
tradition  remains  of  a  predecessor  of  Lopez,  Gomez, 
and  Garcia,  who  aided  the  English  before  Havana 
in  1762.  In  that  year  Lord  Albemarle  took  the 
town  with  two  hundred  ships  and  fourteen  thousand 
soldiers,  beating  a  Spanish  army  of  almost  double 
that  size,  though  it  was  covered  by  heavy  walls  and 
well  provided  with  artillery.  It  took  two  months 
to  reduce  the  city. 

During  one  of  the  land  operations  the  red-coats 
lost  themselves  in  a  dense  wood,  and  were  in  con- 
siderable peril  from  bodies  of  Spaniards  who  were 
almost  within  speaking  distance.  To  advance  or  to 
retreat  was  an  equal  risk.  As  the  column  was 
halted,  pending  a  debate  and  a  reconnoissance,  there 
was  a  rustle  in  a  clump  of  bushes  beside  which  the 
colonel  was  standing ;  then,  as  every  sword  was 
drawn  and  a  row  of  muskets  held  ready,  a  tall 
man  bounded  into  the  space,  laid  his  finger  on  his 
lip  to  enforce  silence,  and,  beckoning  all  to  follow, 
crept  on  stealthily  through  the  chaparral.  He  was 
a  man  advanced  in  years,  a  long  white  beard  flowed 
over  his  chest,  yet  he  was  lithe  and  quick,  and  his 
look  and  manner  were  those  of  one  who  lives  in  the 
open  and  in  frequent  danger.  He  spoke  not  a  word, 
but  after  a  time  drew  himself  erect  and  pointed  be- 
fore him.  He  had  led  the  English  to  the  rear  of 
one  of  the  Spanish  batteries.  The  colonel,  who 
had  at  first  regarded  him  with  doubt,  as  a  lunatic  or 
a  false  guide,  ordered  his  men  to  attack,  and  after  a 
7  97 


Myths  and  Legends 

short  fight  he  returned  to  his  lines  with  prisoners 
and  trophies  of  victory.  He  sought  in  all  directions 
for  the  old  man,  to  thank  him,  but  the  jungle  had 
swallowed  him,  and  he  was  never  seen  again. 


SACRED  SHRINES 

CUBA  has  many  shrines  containing  evidences  of 
divine  blessing,  and  some  of  these  are  of  wide 
renown.  When  the  image  of  our  Lady  of  Charity 
was  found  in  Nipe  Bay  it  was  delivered  to  the 
priests  of  Cobre,  the  centre  of  the  copper-mining 
industry,  and  they  erected  a  church  above  it.  The 
statue  is  fifteen  inches  high,  and  is  seemingly  carved 
from  gold.  A  splendid  shrine  has  been  made  as  a 
setting,  and  for  years  it  has  been  the  object  of  pil- 
grimages during  the  Lady's  festival  in  September. 
Those  who  ask  for  special  favors,  such  as  the  cure 
of  lameness  and  blindness,  ascend  the  long  flight  of 
steps  before  the  statue  on  their  knees.  The  figure 
was  found  in  1627  by  two  Indians  and  a  Creole  boy 
who  were  crossing  the  bay  at  dawn  in  a  search  for 
salt.  It  appeared  to  them  as  a  white  body  rising 
from  the  water,  but  as  they  approached  it  revealed 
itself  as  the  image  of  the  Virgin,  the  holy  child  on 
her  left  arm,  a  golden  cross  in  her  right  hand.  The 
board  on  which  it  stood  was  inscribed,  "  I  am  the 
Virgin  of  Charity."  After  it  had  been  shown  in 
the  fold  at  Verajagua  and  venerated  by  the  multitude 
it  was  placed  in  a  chapel,  a  number  of  priests  lead- 
98 


In  the  Caribbean 

ing  the  march  with  a  pomp  and  joy  of  banners,  while 
bells  and  guns  signalized  its  progress.  The  Virgin 
was  dissatisfied,  however,  with  the  lack  of  splendor 
in  her  shrine  and  with/the  site  on  which  the  chapel 
had  been  placed.  She  told  her  displeasure  to  a  girl 
named  Apolonia,  while  she  burned  pale  lights  on  a 
hill  above  the  mines,  to  mark  the  place  on  which 
she  wished  her  church  to  be  erected.  Her  request 
was  heeded  so  soon  as  the  needed  funds  could  be 
collected.  It  was  generally  believed  that  the  statue 
was  given  by  Ojeda  to  a  native  chief  who,  afraid  of 
the  enmity  of  his  people  as  a  result  of  accepting  a 
gift  from  a  treacherous  and  hated  race,  or,  more  rea- 
sonably, afraid  that  the  Spaniards  would  kill  him  for 
the  sake  of  the  gold  that  adorned  it,  set  it  afloat  in 
the  bay.  A  thief  despoiled  it  of  thirty  thousand 
dollars*  worth  of  jewels  after  the  American  occupa- 
tion. 

This  ambulatory  practice  of  sacred  images  is  not 
uncommon,  and  a  similar  instance  is  recorded  in 
Costa  Rica,  where  in  1643  the  state  had  been 
thrown  into  a  panic  by  the  devil,  who  lives  in  the 
volcano  of  Turrialba,  when  he  is  at  home,  and  who 
generally  was  at  home  in  those  days,  for  he  seized 
upon  every  wayfarer  who  ventured  on  the  peak. 
General  joy  was  therefore  felt  at  the  discovery  of  a 
Madonna  by  a  peasant  woman  at  Cartago.  She 
carried  it  to  her  hut,  but  it  was  dissatisfied  and 
ran  away — twice — three  times.  The  village  priest 
then  took  it  and  put  it  under  lock  and  key  in  his 
99 


Myths  and  Legends 

house.  Again  it  ran  away.  It  was  carried  to 
church  in  procession,  and  it  ran  away  again.  Then 
the  priest  laid  a  heavy  assessment  on  his  flock  for 
silk  and  gold  and  emeralds  with  which  to  deck  the 
image,  and  this  concession  having  been  made  to  a 
feminine  fondness  for  appearance,  the  statue  has  re- 
mained patiently  on  its  pedestal  ever  since.  One 
of  the  treasures  of  the  Church  of  Mercy,  Havana, 
is  a  painting  of  the  cross,  with  a  woman  seated 
on  one  arm  of  it,  holding  a  child.  Spanish  soldiers 
and  proud-looking  Indians  are  gathered  about  the 
emblem.  The  origin  of  the  picture  is  involved  in 
doubt,  but  it  was  installed  in  recognition  of  an  ap- 
pearance vouchsafed  by  the  Virgin  to  Columbus  at 
Cerro  de  la  Vega,  in  presence  of  the  Indians.  The 
natives,  alarmed  at  this  vision  in  the  air,  and  associ- 
ating it — justly,  as  it  fell  out — with  calamity,  dis- 
charged their  arrows  at  it,  and  were  still  more 
frightened  when  their  darts  passed  through  the  ap- 
parition without  causing  a  flow  of  blood.  This 
onslaught  put  the  Spaniards  into  an  instant  rage, 
and,  encouraged  by  the  Virgin's  smiles,  they  fell 
upon  the  heathen  with  sword  and  musketoon  and 
stamped  them  out  of  existence. 

Some  of  these  supernatural  appearances  had  so 
occult  a  purpose  that  it  has  never  been  fathomed. 
At  Daiquiri,  for  example,  where  the  American 
troops  landed  in  the  late  war,  a  native  reported  to 
the  wondering  community  that  while  walking 
through  the  wood  he  met  a  tall,  shaggy  stranger, 
100 


In  the  Caribbean 

who  looked  as  though  he  might  have  been  one  of 
the  fisherman  disciples/  and  who  pointed  to  the 
earth  with  an  imperious  gesture.  So  soon  as  the 
Cuban  had  looked  down  the  tall  man  melted  into 
air.  On  the  ground  was  the  print  of  the  face  of 
Christ.  A  stone  was  placed  on  the  spot  to  mark 
the  miracle. 

When  the  fiery  Ojeda  set  out  on  his  several  voy- 
ages of  discovery  and  adventure, — and  no  man  ever 
had  more  excitement  and  tribulation, — he  carried  in 
his  knapsack  a  small  painting  of  the  Virgin,  the 
work  of  a  Fleming  of  some  artistic  consequence. 
During  his  halts  in  the  jungle  it  was  his  custom  to 
affix  this  picture  to  a  tree,  say  his  prayers  before  it, 
receive  spiritual  assurance  of  protection,  then,  grasp- 
ing sword  and  buckler,  to  undertake  the  slaughter 
of  the  natives  with  fresh  alacrity  and  cheer.  So 
confident  was  he  in  his  heavenly  guard  that  he  ex- 
posed himself  recklessly  in  fight,  and  the  Indians 
were  fain  to  believe  him  deathless,  until  one  of  their 
arrows  pierced  his  leg.  If  this  injured  his  confi- 
dence it  did  not  stint  his  courage.  He  ordered  his 
surgeon  to  burn  the  leg  with  hot  irons,  threatening 
to  hang  him  if  he  refused,  for  he  fancied  that  the 
arrow  was  poisoned.  When  wrecked  on  the  south 
coast  of  Cuba  with  seventy  varlets,  who  had  no 
concern  for  exploration  and  much  for  booty,  he 
struck  out  bravely  for  the  east  end  of  the  island, 
floundering  through  marshes  and  breaking  his  way 
through  tangles  of  vegetation,  the  company  living 
101 


Myths  and  Legends 

for  several  days  on  a  few  pounds  of  raw  roots, 
moldy  cassava,  and  cheese,  and  at  last  breaking  down 
in  despair.  In  thirty  days  they  had  crossed  ninety 
miles  of  morass,  and  were  too  feeble  to  go  farther. 
Ojeda  set  up  his  picture  for  the  last  time  and  be- 
sought the  thirty-five  cut-throats  who  survived  to 
pray  to  it  also,  assuring  the  Virgin  that  if  she  would 
only  guide  them  through  their  peril  this  time  he 
would  make  a  chapel  for  her  in  the  first  village  he 
might  reach. 

In  answer  to  this  prayer  a  path  was  disclosed  that 
led  them  to  dry  ground,  and  they  soon  arrived  at 
the  hamlet  of  Cuebas,  where  the  natives  received 
them  with  every  kindness,  and  went  to  the  marsh  to 
rescue  such  of  the  party  as  had  been  abandoned  but 
were  still  alive.  These  rascals  afterward  reached 
Jamaica,  where  some  were  hanged  for  their  various 
murders  and  sea-robberies,  while  others  re-enlisted 
in  various  freebooting  enterprises.  Ojeda  kept  his 
promise.  He  explained  to  the  chief  at  Cuebas  the 
principal  points  in  the  Christian  faith,  built  a  little 
oratory  in  the  village,  and  placed  the  picture  above 
the  altar,  with  orders  that  the  Indians  should  always 
treat  it  with  reverence.  Though  they  did  not  com- 
prehend the  relation  of  the  painting  to  the  white 
man's  religion,  they  saw  from  the  demeanor  of 
Ojeda  and  his  friends  that  it  was  a  thing  of  value  and 
might  avert  hoodos.  Therefore  it  was  attired  and 
cared  for  with  as  much  assiduity  as  if  it  had  been 
consigned  to  a  Spanish  cathedral,  and  although  the 

102 


In  the  Caribbean 

Indians  had  not  been  Christianized,  they  decorated 
the  oratory,  overhung  its  walls  with  sacrifices,  while 
at  stated  intervals  they  sang  and  danced  before  it. 
When  Father  Las  Casas  tried  to  get  this  picture 
away  from  them,  afterward,  it  was  hidden  in  the 
forest  until  he  had  passed  on.  Ojeda  reformed,  killed 
several  of  his  associates  who  had  attempted  his  life, 
turned  monk,  and  was  buried  under  the  door-stone 
of  his  monastery,  that  the  populace  might  trample 
on  his  pride. 

TOBACCO 

TOBACCO  suggests  Cuba,  or  Cuba  more  than 
suggests  tobacco.  Havana  cigars  are  the 
synonym  for  excellence,  and  it  was  on  this  island 
that  the  native  American  was  first  seen  with  a  cigar 
in  his  mouth.  It  was  not  much  like  the  cigars  of 
our  day,  for  it  consisted  of  loose  leaves  folded  in  a 
corn-husk,  as  a  cigarette  is  wrapped  in  paper.  It 
amazed  the  Spaniards  as  much  to  see  these  dusky 
citizens  eating  fire  and  breathing  smoke  as  it  aston- 
ished the  Filipinos  when  the  Spaniards,  having 
learned  the  trick,  and  having  landed  on  their  islands, 
proceeded  to  swallow  flame  and  utter  smoke  in  the 
same  fashion, — a  proceeding  which  convinced  the 
people  of  the  Philippines  that  the  strangers  were 
gods.  The  white  adventurers  never  found  the  pal- 
ace of  Cubanacan,  whose  gates  were  gold  and 
whose  robes  were  stiff  with  gems,  but  they  found 
103 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  soothing  and  mischievous  plant  that  was  even- 
tually to  create  more  wealth  for  them  than  the  spoil 
of  half  a  dozen  such  palaces.  The  Cuban  word  for 
this  plant  was  cohiba.  The  word  tobago,  which 
we  have  turned  into  tobacco,  was  applied  to  a  cu- 
rious pipe  used  by  the  Antilleans,  which  had  a 
double  or  Y-shaped  stem  for  inserting  into  the  nos- 
trils, the  single  stem  being  held  over  a  heap  of 
burning  leaf.  The  island  of  Tobago  was  so  named 
because  its  explorers  thought  its  outline  to  resemble 
that  of  the  pipe. 

In  one  form  or  another  the  use  of  the  weed  was 
prevalent  throughout  the  Americas.  Montezuma 
had  his  pipe  after  dinner,  and  rinsed  his  mouth  with 
perfume.  For  medicinal  purposes  snuff  was  taken 
through  a  tube  of  bamboo,  and  tobacco  leaves  were 
chewed.  The  practice  of  chewing  also  obtained  to 
a  slight  extent  among  the  natives  as  a  stay  against 
hunger,  and  they  are  said  to  have  indulged  it  in 
long  and  exhaustive  marches  against  an  enemy. 
They  would  chew  in  battle,  because  in  a  fight  at 
close  range  they  tried  to  squirt  the  juice  into  the 
eyes  of  their  foemen  and  blind  them.  The  herb 
was  taken  internally  as  a  tea  for  medicinal  reasons, 
was  used  as  a  plaster,  and  was  valued  as  a  charm. 
Francisco  Fernandez  took  it  to  Europe ;  Drake  and 
Raleigh  introduced  it  in  England,  and  though  its 
use  was  regarded  as  a  sin,  to  be  checked  not  merely 
by  royal  "  counterblasts"  and  by  edicts  like  that  of 
William  the  Testy,  but  by  laws  prescribing  torture, 
104 


In  the  Caribbean 

exile,  whipping,  and  even  death,  it  was  not  long  in 
reaching  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 

Men  of  all  races  and  conditions  incline  to  the 
tradition  of  the  Susquehannas,  that  the  plant  was  the 
gift  of  a  benevolent  spirit.  In  their  account  this 
manitou  had  descended  to  eat  meat,  which  they  had 
offered  to  her  in  a  time  of  famine.  As  she  was 
about  to  go  back  to  the  skies  she  thanked  them  for. 
their  kindness,  and  bade  them  return  to  the  spot  in 
thirteen  months.  They  did  so,  and  found  maize 
growing  where  her  right  hand  had  rested,  beans  at 
her  left,  and  tobacco  where  she  had  been  seated. 

The  Indians  of  Guiana  say  that  tobacco  was  given 
by  a  sea-goddess  to  a  man  who  was  begging  the  gods 
to  do  something  for  him, — he  didn't  know  exactly 
what;  he  would  merely  like  to  have  somebody  do 
something  for  him  on  general  principles.  As  a 
divine  gift,  therefore,  it  was  used  in  certain  of  the 
rites  of  the  Indians,  and  the  man  who  wished  to  go 
into  a  trance  and  see  visions  would  starve  for  a 
couple  of  days,  then  drink  tobacco  water.  He 
generally  saw  the  visions, — if  he  lived.  In  some 
islands  the  priests  inhaled  the  smoke  of  a  burning 
powder  and  thereupon  fell  into  a  stupor  or  a  frenzy 
in  which  they  talked  with  the  dead.  Was  this  the 
smoke  of  tobacco,  plus  a  little  abandon,  a  little 
falsehood,  a  little  enthusiasm  ?  Its  enemies  in  King 
James's  time  would  have  said  that  the  smokers  de- 
served not  merely  to  talk  with  the  dead,  but  to  join 
them. 

105 


Myths  and  Legends 

THE   TWO   SKELETONS   OF  COLUMBUS 

FOLLOWING  the  return  of  the  vanquished 
army  of  Spain  to  its  home  country  was  an- 
other solemn  voyage,  undertaken  for  the  transfer 
of  the  bones  of  Christopher  Columbus  from  the 
world  he  had  discovered  to  the  land  that  grudgingly, 
cautiously  permitted  him  to  discover  it.  Spain 
claimed  all  the  benefits  that  arose  from  his  knowl- 
edge, his  bravery,  his  skill,  his  energy,  and  his 
enthusiasm,  and  rewarded  his  years  of  service  with 
dismissal  from  office  and  confinement  in  chains  as  a 
prisoner,  but  now  it  repented,  and  wished  to  house 
his  unwitting  relics  in  state.  Once  before  these 
bones  had  crossed  the  sea.  After  the  death  of  the 
great  navigator,  in  Valladolid,  Spain,  in  1506,  his 
body  remained  in  that  city  for  seven  years.  Then 
it  was  taken  to  Seville  and  placed  in  Las  Cuevas 
monastery  with  that  of  his  son,  Diego.  In  1536 
both  bodies  were  exhumed  and  sent  to  Santo  Do- 
mingo, or  Hispaniola,  an  island  that  Columbus 
appeared  to  hold  in  a  warmer  liking  than  either  of 
the  equally  picturesque,  fertile,  and  friendly  islands 
of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  or  Jamaica.  In  the  quaint 
old  cathedral  of  Santo  Domingo,  built  in  1514,  the 
bodies  of  the  great  admiral,  his  son,  and  also  his 
grandson,  Louis,  first  Duke  of  Veragua,  rested  for 
more  than  a  century  without  disturbance. 

On  the  appearance  of  the  English  fleet,  however, 
in   1655,  the  archbishop  was  so  fearful  of  a  raid  on 
1 06 


In  the  Caribbean 

the  church  and  the  theft  of  the  bodies  that  he  or- 
dered them  to  be  hidden  in  the  earth.  During  the 
years  in  which  they  remained  so  covered  the  exact 
burial-place  of  the  admiral  may  have  been  forgotten, 
or,  it  may  be,  as  several  people  allege,  that  the  San 
Dominicans  tricked  the  Spaniards  when,  in  1795, 
the  latter  gave  their  island  to  France  and  carried 
with  them  to  Havana  the  supposed  skeleton  of 
Columbus.  Bones  of  somebody  they  certainly  did 
take,  but  it  is  no  uncommon  belief  in  the  Antilles 
that  the  monks  of  Santo  Domingo  had  hidden  the 
precious  ones  and  sent  to  the  monks  of  Havana  the 
bones  of  the  son,  Diego,  albeit  a  monument  was 
erected  to  the  memory  and  virtues  of  the  great 
Columbus  in  Havana  cathedral. 

In  1878  the  old  church  in  Santo  Domingo  was 
undergoing  repair  when  the  workmen  came  upon  a 
leaden  box  containing  the  undoubted  remains  of  the 
first  Duke  of  Veragua.  Breaking  through  the  wall 
of  the  vault  they  found  themselves  in  a  larger  one, 
and  here  was  a  box  two  feet  long,  enclosing  a  skull, 
bones,  dust,  jewelry,  and  a  silver  plate  bearing  the 
words  "  C.  Colon,"  and  on  the  end  of  the  box, 
according  to  some  witnesses,  the  letters  "  C.  C. 
A.,"  meaning  Christopher  Columbus,  Admiral  (the 
English  initials  being  the  same  as  for  the  name  and 
title  in  Spanish).  A  more  circumstantial  account 
places  the  time  of  this  rediscovery  in  1867,  and 
says  that  a  musket-ball  was  the  only  object  found  in 
the  little  coffin,  while  the  silver  plate  on  the  lid  was 
107 


Myths  and  Legends 

thus  inscribed,  "  Una  pt.  de  los  restos  del  Primar 
Aim.  to  Du  Christobal  Colon. "  The  Santo  Domini- 
cans claim  their  right  to  the  relics  on  the  ground 
that  in  his  life  the  Spanish  misused  the  discoverer, 
though  his  grief  was  not  deep  enough  to  justify  the 
ancient  rumor  of  his  electing  to  be  buried  with  the 
chains  in  which  he  was  carried  back  to  Spain.  Mean- 
time Seville  is  to  build  a  monument,  and  Santo  Do- 
mingo is  putting  up  another,  each  city  claiming  to 
have  his  only  real  skeleton. 


OBEAH   WITCHES 

FROM  the  earliest  days  of  Spanish  occupancy 
the  Antilles  have  been  the  haunt  of  strange 
creatures.  Mermen  have  sung  in  their  waters, 
witches  and  wizards  have  perplexed  their  villages, 
spirits  and  fiends  have  dwelt  among  their  woods. 
Everybody  fears  the  jumbie,  or  evil  spirit  that  walks 
the  night ;  and  the  duppy,  the  rolling  calf,  the  ghost 
of  the  murdered  one  ;  all  pray  that  they  may  never 
meet  the  diablesse,  the  beautiful  negress  with  glit- 
tering eyes,  who  passes  silently  through  fields  where 
people  are  at  work,  and  smiling  on  any  one  of  them 
compels  him  to  follow  her, — where  ?  He  never 
returns.  Anansi  (grotesquely  disguised  sometimes 
as  Aunt  Nancy)  is  a  hairy  old  man  with  claws,  who 
outwits  the  lesser  creatures,  as  Br'er  Rabbit  does. 
To  him  and  his  familiars  are  attributed  all  manner 
108 


In  the  Caribbean 

of  queer  tales,  one  of  which,  from  Jamaica,  may  be 
quoted  as  an  illustration  : 

Sarah  Winyan,  an  orphan  of  ten,  lived  with  her 
aunt,  while  her  two  brothers  kept  house  by  them- 
selves a  mile  or  two  away.  This  aunt  was  an 
Obeah  witch,  the  duppy,  or  devil  ghost,  that  was 
her  familiar,  appearing  as  a  great  black  dog  that  she 
called  Tiger.  Sarah  stood  between  this  old  woman 
and  a  little  property,  and  after  finding  that  the  child 
endured  her  abuse  with  more  or  less  equanimity  and 
was  not  likely  to  die,  she  told  her  that  she  was  too 
poor  to  support  her  any  longer,  and  she  must  go. 
Sarah  sat  on  a  stone  before  the  house,  wondering 
how  she  could  make  a  living,  and  all  the  time  sang 
mournfully.  A  racket  as  of  some  heavy  creature 
plunging  about  in  the  bushes  aroused  her  with  a 
start  and  she  scrambled  into  a  tree.  It  was  Tiger  who 
had  been  making  the  disturbance.  He  told  her  to 
descend  at  once.  If  she  would  go  with  him  peace- 
fully, and  would  be  his  servant,  all  would  be  well, 
but  if  she  refused  he  would  gnaw  the  tree  down  and 
tear  her  into  a  thousand  pieces.  He  showed  his 
double  row  of  teeth,  like  daggers,  whereupon  Sarah 
immediately  descended.  As  she  walked  beside  him 
to  his  lair  she  sang  low,  in  the  hope  of  being  heard 
and  rescued.  It  was  well  that  she  did  so,  for  her 
brothers,  who  were  hunting  in  the  wood,  recognized 
her  voice  and  softly  followed.  Peering  in  at  the 
cave  where  Tiger  made  his  home,  they  saw  him 
sleeping  soundly  with  his  head  in  Sarah's  lap.  Cau- 
109 


Myths  and  Legends 

tiously,  slowly,  she  drew  away,  leaving  a  block  of 
wood  for  his  head  to  rest  upon,  and  crept  out  of  the 
cavern.  Then  the  boys  entered,  and  with  their 
guns  blew  the  head  of  the  beast  into  bits,  cut  his 
body  into  four  parts,  buried  them  at  the  north, 
south,  east  and  west  edges  of  the  wood ;  then  killed 
the  wicked  aunt.  And  since  that  day  dogs  have 
been  subject  to  men. 

The  evil  eye  is  not  uncommon  in  the  Antille".  It 
blights  the  lives  of  children,  and  it  is  one  of  the  worst 
of  fates  to  be  "  overlooked"  by  an  Obeah  man  pos- 
sessing it.  Higes,  or  witches,  too,  are  seen,  who 
take  off  their  skins,  and  in  that  state  of  extra-nudity 
go  about  looking  for  children,  whose  blood  they 
suck,  like  vampires.  Lockjaw  is  caused  by  this  loss 
of  blood.  There  is^a  three-footed  horse,  also,  that 
gallops  about  the  country  roads  when  it  has  come 
freshly  out  of  hell  and  is  looking  for  victims  it  can 
eat.  If  it  halts  before  a  house,  that  stop  means 
death  to  somebody  within,  and  the  peculiar  sound 
made  by  its  three  hoofs  tells  what  has  passed.  It  is 
not  well  to  look,  because  the  creature  has  an  eye  in 
the  centre  of  its  forehead  that  flashes  fire.  One 
who  meets  it  is  so  fascinated  by  this  blazing  eye 
that  he  cannot  look  away.  He  stares  and  stares ; 
presently  paralysis  creeps  over  him,  and  in  a  little 
while  he  falls  dead.  Sometimes  a  creature  is  seen 
riding  on  this  horse, — a  man  with  a  blue  face,  like 
that  of  a  corpse,  and  with  that  face  turned  toward 
the  tail.  Related,  in  tradition,  to  the  horse  was  the 
no 


In  the  Caribbean 

king-snake  of  Carib  myth,  a  frightful  creature  that 
wore  a  brilliant  stone  in  its  head,  which  it  usually 
concealed  with  a  lid,  like  that  of  the  eye,  but  which 
it  would  uncover  when  it  went  to  a  river  to  drink, 
or  played  about  the  hills.  Whoever  looked  on  this 
dazzling  stone  would  lose  his  sight  on  the  instant. 

The  Obeah  man  has  an  hereditary  power  that 
comes  to  him  in  advanced  age,  and  that,  when  at  its 
strongest,  enables  him  to  send  an  evil  spirit  into  any 
object  he  pleases.  Not  only  do  the  people  believe 
in  him,  but  he  has  the  fullest  faith  in  himself. 
When  he  boils  a  witch  broth  of  scorpions'  blood, 
toads'  heads,  snake  bellies,  spider  poison,  and  certain 
herbs  picked  by  moonlight  (an  actual  mixture  used 
by  Obeah  witches), — boils  it  over  a  fire  of  dead 
men's  bones,  between  midnight  and  dawn, — he  has 
no  more  doubt  of  its  power  to  harm  than  the  physi- 
cian doubts  the  power  of  his  quinine  and  antipyrin 
for  good. 

A  Cuban  planter  who  suspected  one  of  his  older 
slaves  of  being  an  Obeah  man  determined  to  punish 
him  if  he  were  found  guilty,  and  to  suppress  the 
diabolism  attending  the  midnight  meetings.  Watch- 
ing his  chance,  he  followed  his  slaves  into  the  wood, 
peeped  through  the  crevices  of  the  deserted  hut 
which  they  had  entered  to  perform  their  fantastic 
rites,  saw  their  mad  dance,  when,  stripped  and  dec- 
orated with  beads,  shells,  and  feathers,  they  leaped 
about  with  torches  in  their  hands;  then  saw  his  sus- 
pected slave  enter  through  a  back  door,  his  black 
in 


Myths  and  Legends 

skin  painted  to  represent  a  skeleton.  The  old  man 
held  up  a  fat  toad,  which,  he  said,  was  his  familiar, 
and  the  company  began  to  worship  it  with  grotesque 
and  obscene  ceremonies.  Though  he  felt  a  thrill 
of  disgust  and  even  a  dim  sense  of  fear  at  the  spec- 
tacle, the  planter  broke  in  at  the  door  and  con- 
fronted the  Obeah  man.  Had  he  ordered  the  old 
fellow  to  do  any  given  task  about  his  house  or 
grounds  in  the  daytime,  that  order  would  have  been 
obeyed.  What  was  the  planter's  astonishment, 
therefore,  when  the  slave  calmly  disregarded  his 
command  to  return  to  quarters,  and  bade  his  master 
leave  the  place  at  once  and  cease  to  disturb  the 
meeting,  or  prepare  for  a  great  misfortune.  En- 
raged, and  fearing  lest  this  defiance  might  encourage 
the  other  slaves  to  mutiny,  the  master  shot  the  old 
man  dead.  A  few  days  later  the  planter's  wife  died 
while  seated  at  the  table.  A  week  after  his  daughter 
died,  a  seeming  victim  of  poison.  All  the  latent 
superstition  in  his  nature  having  been  aroused,  he 
sought  out  another  Obeah  man,  to  beg  that  he  would 
intercede  with  the  powers  of  darkness,  but  the 
wizard  was  stern.  He  told  him  that  the  slave  he 
had  killed  was  the  most  powerful  master  of  spirits 
in  the  country,  and  that  nothing  could  stay  the  re- 
venges of  fate.  When  the  planter  reached  his  home 
he  found  a  letter  there  announcing  the  death  of  his 
only  son  in  Paris. 


112 


In  the  Caribbean 

THE   MATANZAS   OBEAH    WOMAN 

ON  a  hillock  near  Matanzas,  with  a  ragged 
wood  behind  it,  stood  for  many  years  an 
unkempt  cottage.  In  our  land  we  should  hardly 
dignify  it  by  such  a  name.  We  would  call  it, 
rather,  a  hovel.  Some  rotting  timbers  of  it  may 
still  be  left,  for  the  black  people  who  live  there- 
about keep  away,  especially  at  night,  believing  that 
the  hillock  is  a  resort  of  spirits.  Yet  not  many  of 
them  remember  the  incident  that  put  this  unpleas- 
ant fame  upon  it,  for-that  was  back  in  the  slavery 
days.  The  brutal  O'Donnell  was  governor-general 
then.  He  found  Cuba  in  its  usual  state  of  sullen 
tranquillity,  and  no  chance  seemed  to  offer  by  which 
he  could  make  a  name  for  himself,  so  he  magnified 
every  village  wrangle  into  an  insurrection.  It  looked 
well  in  his  reports  when  he  set  forth  the  skill  and 
ease  with  which  he  had  suppressed  the  uprisings, 
and,  as  he  did  not  scruple  to  take  life  in  punishment 
for  slight  offences,  nor  to  retaliate  on  a  community 
for  the  misconduct  of  a  single  member  of  it,  he  al- 
most created  the  revolution  that  he  described  to  his 
home  government.  The  merest  murmur,  the  mer- 
est shadow  was  enough  to  take  him  to  the  scene  of 
an  alleged  outbreak,  and  he  would  cause  slaves  to  be 
whipped  until  they  were  ready  to  confess  anything. 
A  black  boy  in  Matanzas,  arrested  on  suspicion 
of  inciting  to  rebellion,  was  condemned  to  seven 
hundred  blows  with  the  lash.  At  the  end  of  the 

8  113 


Myths  and  Legends 

flogging,  being  still  alive,  he  was  shot,  at  O'Donnell's 
order.  He  would  confess  nothing,  because  he  had 
nothing  to  confess.  This  boy  had  been  brought  up 
in  a  well-to-do  Spanish  family,  and  was  the  play- 
mate, the  friend,  of  the  son  of  that  family,  rather 
than  his  slave.  The  white  boy  begged  for  the  life 
of  his  associate,  the  family  implored  mercy,  and 
asked  for  at  least  a  trial,  but  the  governor- general 
would  not  listen  to  them,  and  after  the  shooting  the 
white  boy  became  insane  with  shock  and  grief. 
Thus  much  of  the  legend  is  declared  to  be  fact. 

It  was  the  mother  of  the  black  boy  who  lived  in 
this  cabin  outside  of  the  town.  She  had  also  been 
a  slave  until  the  Spanish  family,  giving  up  its  planta- 
tion, moved  into  the  city,  sold  the  younger  and 
stronger  of  their  human  properties,  and  set  free  the 
elderly  and  rheumatic,  taking  with  them  only  a 
couple  of  servants  and  the  boy,  who  went  with  his 
mother's  consent,  for  she  knew  he  would  be  cared 
for,  and  she  could  see  him  often,  the  relation  be- 
tween slave  and  owner  being  more  commonly  affec- 
tionate than  otherwise.  At  its  best,  slavery  is 
morally  benumbing  to  the  enslaved,  destructive  of 
the  finer  feelings,  and  when  the  old  woman  learned 
of  her  son's  death, — and  such  a  death  of  torture, — 
she  did  not  go  mad,  as  his  playfellow  had  done. 
She  lamented  loudly,  she  said  many  prayers,  she 
accepted  condolences  with  seeming  gratitude,  but 
the  tears  had  ceased  to  flow  ere  many  weeks,  and 
she  was  seen  to  smile  when  her  old  mistress,  whose 
114 


In  the  Caribbean 

affliction  was  indeed  the  heavier,  had  called  on  her 
in  her  cabin,  no  doubt  feeling  as  much  in  need  of 
her  servant's  sympathy  as  the  servant  felt  of  the 
creature  comforts  she  took  to  her. 

Yet  deep  in  Maumee  Nina's  nature  a  change  had 
taken  place.  She  did  not  know  it  herself  for  many 
months.  Her  loss  had  not  affected  her  conduct  or 
appearance  greatly,  yet  her  heart  had  hardened  under 
it  and  she  began  to  look  upon  the  world  with  a  dif- 
ferent eye.  She  cared  less  for  her  friends,  and  went 
to  church  less  often, — a  suspicious  circumstance,  for 
when  a  negro  failed  to  go  to  mass,  and  kept  away 
from  confession,  it  was  surely  because  he  had  some- 
thing mischievous  to  confess.  The  rumor  got  about 
that  Maumee  Nina  had  become  an  Obeah  woman, — 
a  voodoo  worker,  a  witch.  It  is  not  unlikely  that 
the  accusation  inspired  her  to  live  down  to  it.  Not 
only  were  witches  held  in  respect  and  fear,  but  she 
might  be  able,  through  evil  arts,  to  plague  the  race 
that  had  worked  her  husband  to  death  in  the  mines, 
and  now  had  killed  her  only  son.  She  kept  still 
more  at  home,  brooding,  planning,  yielding  farther 
and  farther  to  the  evil  suggestions  that  her  repute  as 
a  voodoo  priestess  offered  to  her,  yet  keeping  one 
place  in  her  heart  even  warmer  than  before, — the 
place  filled  by  her  daughter,  Juanita. 

This  girl  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  was  not  black,  like 

her  mother.     She  was  a  handsome  mulatto.     In  a 

country    where    relations    are  so  easily   established 

without  marriage,  and  where  marriage  is  so  difficult 

US 


Myths  and  Legends 

and  has  so  little  force,  the  fatherhood  of  many  chil- 
dren is  in  doubt.  If  Juanita  knew  her  father's 
name  she  was  not  known  to  him.  It  mattered  little. 
The  old  woman  intended  to  bring  her  up  as  a  lady, — 
that  is,  to  qualify  her  for  a  place  as  waiting-maid  in 
the  house  of  some  good  family ;  so  she  made  many 
sacrifices  on  her  account,  clothing  her  vividly,  re- 
quiring less  work  of  her  than  she  should  have  done, 
and  even,  it  was  said,  paying  money  to  have  reading 
taught  to  her,  and  that  was  an  accomplishment,  in- 
deed. 

Considering  the  pains  and  self-denials  that  the 
rearing  of  this  child  incurred,  it  was  a  trifle  in- 
consistent that  Maumee  Nina  should  have  opposed 
the  friendly  advances  of  gallants  from  the  town. 
She  was  not  of  a  class  that  is  wont  to  consider  the 
etiquette  of  such  attentions,  nor  would  she  have 
refused  to  give  her  daughter  in  marriage  to  any 
Cuban.  It  was  that  her  feeling  toward  the  Span- 
iards was  deepening  into  hate,  and  it  rejoiced  her  to 
learn  that  a  revolution  was  really  intended.  By  her 
native  shrewdness  she  was  able  to  do  something  for 
her  people's  cause.  Whenever  a  young  negro  went 
to  her  to  have  his  fortune  told, — and  from  this  art 
she  began  to  realize  a  steady  income, — she  managed 
to  hint  at  his  future  greatness  as  a  military  leader, 
his  gains  in  the  loot  of  Spanish  camps,  his  prowess 
in  bush-fighting  when  hostilities  should  really  have 
begun. 

In  this  way  she  really  incited  a  number  of  the 
116 


In  the  Caribbean 

ambitious,  the  quarrelsome,  and  the  greedy  to  enlist 
in  the  schemes  for  Cuba's  liberation.  Nanigo  meet- 
ings were  held  in  and  near  her  house ;  there  were 
wild  dances  and  uncanny  ceremonies,  sacrificing  of 
animals  in  the  moonlight,  baptisms  of  blood,  weird 
chants  and  responses,  and  crime  increased  in  the 
town.  All  this  being  reported  to  the  military  the 
guard  lines  were  extended  and  a  squadron  was  posted 
at  a  house  not  over  a  mile  from  Maumee  Nina's, 
with  Lieutenant  Fernandez  in  command.  Fernan- 
dez was  a  dashing  fellow,  with  swarthy  counte- 
nance, moustachios  that  bristled  upward,  close- 
trimmed  hair  and  beard,  a  laughing,  pleasure-loving 
eye,  and  he  wore  a  trig  uniform  that  set  off  his 
compact  shape  to  advantage.  Old  Nina  heard, 
though  it  was  not  true,  probably,  that  he  had  car- 
ried out  the  order  of  O'Donnell  for  the  shooting 
of  her  boy.  Naturally  he  was  the  last  man  she 
could  wish  to  see,  and  she  made  no  secret  of  her  dis- 
like when,  on  returning  to  her  home  from  a  visit  to 
Matanzas,  she  found  this  young  officer  seated  on  a 
chair  before  her  door,  twirling  his  moustache  and 
gayly  chatting  with  her  daughter.  She  instantly 
ordered  the  girl  to  go  indoors,  and  bade  the  lieu- 
tenant pack  off  about  his  business.  Being  an  easy- 
going fellow,  with  no  dislike  for  the  people  among 
whom  the  fortunes  of  his  calling  had  cast  him,  and 
with  a  strong  fondness  for  pretty  maids,  the  young 
man  deprecated  the  anger  of  the  woman,  but  finding, 
after  some  persiflage,  that  it  was  of  small  use  to  try 
117 


Myths  and  Legends 

to  make  friends  with  her,  he  marched  away  toward 
his  quarters,  trolling  a  lively  air  and  drumming  with 
his  fingers  on  his  sword-hilt.  On  the  next  evening 
he  was  at  Maumee  Nina's  again,  and  before  the 
very  nose  of  that  indignant  dame  chaffed  her  daugh- 
ter, whom  he  also  chucked  under  the  chin ;  and  he 
gazed  long  and  searchingly  at  a  couple  of  low- 
browed, shifty-looking  blacks  who  were  talking  with 
the  old  woman  when  he  entered. 

"  Who  are  these  fellows  ?"  he  demanded. 

"  What  right  have  you,  senor  lieutenant,  to  ques- 
tion me  about  my  guests,  in  my  own  house  ?"  re- 
plied Nina.  "  It  is  enough  that  they  were  invited, 
and  you  were  not." 

The  lieutenant  glanced  sharply  at  Juanita.  She 
looked  at  the  shabby  fellows  for  an  instant,  smiled 
contemptuously,  and  gave  her  head  a  saucy  fling. 
The  officer's  good-nature  was  restored  in  a  moment. 
"  Give  me  a  calabash  of  water  from  that  spring  of 
yours,  your  grace,  and  I'll  take  myself  off,"  said  he. 
"  But,  mind,  there  are  to  be  no  more  dances  here, — 
no  more  voodoo  practice." 

Old  Nina  left  the  room  grumbling  to  herself, 
while  Fernandez  talked  with  Juanita,  quite  disre- 
garding the  sour  and  silent  pair  of  black  men.  As 
he  glanced  through  a  crack  in  the  timbers  of  the 
house  he  saw  the  old  woman  raise  a  gourd  of  water, 
wave  her  hand  above  it  three  times,  mutter,  and 
shake  her  head.  Then  she  drew  from  her  pocket  a 
tiny  object  and  dropped  it  in  the  water,  stirring  it 
118 


In  the  Caribbean 

around  and  around,  as  if  to  dissolve  it.  There  was 
a  quiet  smile  on  the  lieutenant's  face  as  he  received 
the  calabash  from  the  old  woman's  hand. 

"  In  the  old  days,  senora,"  he  said,  "  it  was  the 
way  to  sweeten  the  drink  of  a  cavalier  by  getting 
the  fairest  lady  of  the  house  to  sip  from  it  before 
he  drank.  Senora  Juanita,  you  will  take  a  little  from 
this  shell,  and  I  will  then  drink  to  your  eyes." 

Juanita  had  taken  the  calabash  and  had  lifted  it  to 
her  mouth,  when  Nina  sprang  forward  and  struck  it 
to  the  floor.  The  lieutenant  looked  steadily  into 
the  face  of  the  old  woman.  Her  eyes,  at  first  ex- 
pressing fear,  then  anger,  dropped  unjder  his  gaze. 
"  I  thought  so,"  he  said,  calmly,  and  left  the  house 
without  a  backward  look  or  another  word. 

Late  that  night  a  subaltern,  who  had  called  on 
Fernandez  to  carry  a  report  to  headquarters,  set  off 
alone  in  the  direction  of  the  city.  When  half  a 
mile  on  his  way  a  man  suddenly  confronted  him  and 
asked  him  for  a  light.  He  promptly  offered  his 
cigar.  Puffing  fiercely  the  stranger  created  a  glow, 
and  in  the  shadow  behind  it  he  eagerly  scanned  the 
face  of  the  soldier.  He  then  returned  the  stump, 
saying,  "  Pass  on,  sir.  You  are  not  he  I  seek. 
Your  cigar  has  saved  your  life."  There  was  a  click, 
as  of  a  knife  thrust  into  its  sheath,  and  the  stranger 
was  gone. 

Fernandez  heard  of  this  and  drew  an  inference, 
but  it  did  not  deter  him  from  another  visit  to  the 
Obeah  woman's  house  next  evening.  The  old 
119 


Myths  and  Legends 

woman  was  away.  Juanita  was  there  alone.  Truly, 
the  girl  was  fair,  her  eye  was  merry,  she  had  white 
teeth  and  a  tempting  lip ;  moreover,  she  appeared 
by  no  means  indifferent  to  the  young  officer.  In  ten 
minutes  they  were  talking  pleasantly,  confidently, 
and  Fernandez  held  the  maiden's  hand. 

The  hours  went  by  without  any  one  there  to  take 
account  of  them.  It  was  a  fair  and  quiet  night,  except 
for  the  queer  and  persistent  call  of  some  insects  that 
seemed  always  to  be  drawing  nearer  to  the  house. 
Faint  now  came  the  sound  of  the  clock  in  Matanzas 
striking  twelve.  As  if  it  were  a  signal  to  the  dead, 
shadows  appeared  about  the  house  of  the  Obeah 
woman,  creeping,  nodding,  motioning,  moving  to- 
ward the  door.  One  stood  close  beside  it  and  struck 
it  twice,  loudly,  with  a  metal  implement  that  rang 
sharply  ;  then  it  waited.  Steps  were  heard  inside, — 
the  steps  of  a  man  in  military  boots :  Fernandez. 
There  was  a  swish  of  steel,  too,  like  a  sword 
whipped  out  of  its  scabbard,  but  almost  at  the  in- 
stant when  this  was  heard  the  door  was  opened.  A 
blow,  a  faint  cry,  a  fall,  a  hurry  of  steps  in  the 
grass ;  then  a  light.  Fernandez  held  it.  A  long, 
agonized  scream  quavered  through  the  darkness,  and 
Maumee  Nina,  with  blood  on  her  hands,  fell  prone 
on  the  body  of  her  daughter,  her  Juanita,  lying 
there  on  the  earth  with  a  knife  in  her  heart. 


120 


In  the  Caribbean 

HOW  HAVANA  GOT  ITS  MARKET 

AMONG  the  Spanish  governors  of  Cuba,  some 
of  whom  managed  by  strict  economy  to 
save  a  million  dollars  out  of  a  salary  of  forty  thou- 
sand dollars, — men  of  Weyler's  stamp, — it  is  pleas- 
ant to  know  of  one  or  two  who  really  had  the  good 
of  the  island  at  heart.  Such  was  the  honest  Blanco, 
and  such  was  Tacon,  to  whom  Havana  owes  much 
of  its  beauty  and  architectural  character.  He  did 
what  he  could  to  abolish  brigandage,  which  under 
preceding  administrations  had  become  common.  He 
organized  a  force  of  night  watchmen;  he  dealt  with 
offenders  according  to  their  deserts,  and  if  at  tfmes 
he  was  too  severe  it  was  because  he  believed  that  a 
lesson  in  the  impartiality  of  justice  was  needed  by 
certain  favored  classes.  He  had  a  Latin's  love  of 
the  sensational  and  spectacular,  though  in  conduct, 
rather  than  in  appearance,  and  in  these  days  some 
of  his  acts  would  be  set  down  to  a  love  of  self- 
advertising.  As  they  had  their  effect,  those  who 
profited  by  increased  safety  could  afford  to  be  in- 
curious of  reasons.  He  startled  the  populace  on 
the  very  day  he  landed.  Cuba  had  been  overrun 
with  bandits,  some  masquerading  as  insurgents,  while 
others  prowled  through  the  towns  cutting  throats  in 
the  shadow  of  the  church.  Cries  of  "Stop  thief!" 
and  "  Murder !"  were  common  at  midday.  More 
than  one  hundred  people  had  been  stabbed  to  death 
before  the  Chapel  of  Our  Lord  of  the  Good  Death. 

121 


Myths  and  Legends 

Police  and  soldiery  were  terrorized,  and  no  man 
cheerfully  went  through  the  side  streets  after  dark. 
Startling  depravity  was  instanced.  Jose  Ibarra,  a 
mulatto,  had  killed  seventeen  people  before  he  was 
hanged  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  It  was  supposed 
that  Tacon  would  arrive  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets 
and  would  try  to  impress  the  public.  The  Spanish 
army  was  represented  at  the  landing-place  by  gen- 
erals and  colonels  bedizened  with  bullion  and  but- 
tons ;  there  were  troops  with  silken  flags  and  glitter- 
ing sabres  and  bayonets  ;  there  was  a  copious  exhibit 
of  bunting ;  society  was  there  in  carriages,  with 
liveried  footmen  and  outriders ;  foreign  diplomats 
were  in  uniform,  as  if  to  meet  royalty,  and  the 
clergy  had  a  place  of  honor.  The  boat  touched  the 
pier.  A  small  man  in  civilian  dress  walked  smartly 
to  the  land.  He  had  a  riding-whip  in  his  hand, — 
symbol  of  his  rule  :  for  this  was  Tacon,  and  within  a 
month  he  was  to  whip  crime  into  its  dens  and  make 
the  capital  of  Cuba  safe.  His  first  order  carried 
consternation  to  the  advocates  of  fuss  and  feathers. 
It  was  to  dismiss  the  parade,  remove  the  decora- 
tions, send  the  police  to  their  posts,  and  declare 
Havana  in  a  state  of  siege.  This  was  startling,  but 
it  gratified  and  assured  those  who  had  long  begged 
for  an  honest  and  watchful  government,  and  had 
continued  not  to  get  it.  Crime  recognized  and 
feared  this  master.  "  In  a  little  while,"  says  a 
Cuban,  "  you  could  have  gone  about  the  streets  at 
any  hour  of  the  night  with  diamonds  in  your  open 

122 


In  the  Caribbean 

hands  and  nobody  would  have  touched  you,  not 
even  the  Spanish  Robert  Macaire  or  Robin  Hood, 
who  is  remembered  bitterly  in  Andalusia, — Diego 
Corrientes."  Merchants  going  to  and  from  the 
bank  with  money  had  formerly  been  compelled  to 
hire  soldiers  as  guards,  and  when  they  complained 
of  violence  the  magistrates  had  said,  "  Go  to  bed  at 
seven,  as  we  do,  and  you'll  have  no  trouble." 
Thieves  bought  their  liberty  from  jailers.  Tacon 
arrested  the  jailers  in  that  case. 

It  does  not  take  long  to  erect  a  reputation  when 
it  has  a  basis  of  desert.  An  odd  modern  instance  is 
told  in  the  case  of  an  American  newspaper  reporter, 
John  C.  Klein,  who,  after  ten  years  of  absence,  was 
canonized  by  the  Samoans,  among  whom  he  had 
lived  for  some  years,  as  a  hero  in  battle,  a  slayer 
of  Germans,  and  a  wizard  who  closed  his  own 
wounds  by  magic.  The  gods  approved  him,  and 
the  people  in  their  trouble  prayed  for  the  return  of 
Talaini  o  le  Meleke  (Klein,  the  American)  to  rescue 
them.  And  with  Tacon  it  took  hardly  longer  to 
become  a  sort  of  national  hero.  The  qualities  he 
showed  in  reforming,  building,  extending,  and  pro- 
tecting Havana  were  so  unusual  that  the  people 
willingly  credited  others  to  him  he  may  not  have 
possessed.  He  has  become  legendary  already. 

Tacon,  after  gathering   in   two   thousand  of  the 

riff-raff  and  putting  them  at  work  on  roads,  piers, 

and  prisons,  applied  himself  with  special  energy  to 

the  suppression  of  Marti,  the  most  daring,  yet  the 

123 


Myths  and  Legends 

slyest  and  most  cautious  of  all  the  robbers  in  the 
country.  He  and  his  band  thought  no  more  of 
splitting  the  weasand  of  a  soldier  than  tossing  off  a 
glass  of  brandy,  and  the  people  were  more  than 
half  his  friends,  because  he  joined  smuggling  to  his 
other  industries,  and  was  therefore  able  to  provide 
them  with  many  necessities,  such  as  wine  and  ban- 
danas, at  a  price  much  lower  than  they  commanded 
in  the  shops.  Yet  the  secret  agents,  the  constabu- 
lary, and  the  troops  began  to  make  it  perilous  for 
these  law-breakers,  and  General  Tacon  was  hopeful 
of  their  speedy  capture.  On  a  certain  morning  he 
looked  up  abstractedly  from  some  letters  he  was 
writing  on  the  case  of  Marti  and  was  astonished  to 
see  a  burly  but  well-dressed  stranger  standing  before 
his  desk.  "  How  in  the  devil  did  you  get  in  here, 
sir,  unannounced  ?"  he  asked,  in  some  irritation. 

"  I  come  on  secret  business,"  replied  the  other, 
in  a  lower  tone. 

«  Ha !     About " 

"  Exactly.     About  Marti." 

"  Speak,  then.  You  will  not  be  overheard.  What 
do  you  know  ?" 

"  First,  your  Excellency,  let  us  understand  the 
situation.  There  is  a  large  reward  for  this  man,  is 
there  not  ?" 

"  There  is.  Capture  him  and  the  money  is  yours. 
Ah,  I  see !  You  wish  to  turn  state's  evidence.  So 
much  the  better.  You  shall  be  protected." 

"  But  suppose  I  had  been  associated  with  the 
124 


In  the  Caribbean 

worst  of  these  men  ?  Suppose  I  had  committed 
crimes  ?  Suppose  I  had  been  a  leader  ?" 

"  Even  in  that  case  you  shall  be  protected." 

"  Give  me  your  word,  as  an  officer  and  a  gentle- 
man, that,  no  matter  what  my  offences  have  been, 
I  shall  have  an  official  pardon  when  I  put  you  on 
the  track  of  the  outlaws." 

"  You  must  earn  the  pardon.  If  you  know  the 
haunts  of  the  smugglers  we  shall  expect  you  to  pilot 
us  to  every  one  of  them." 

"  I  will  do  it.  I  am  tired  of  an  evil  life,  tired  of 
hiding,  tired  of  fear,  tired  of  hate.  I  wish  to  come 
back  and  live  among  men." 

"  Well  spoken.     And  Marti  ?" 

"  I  shall  be  pardoned,  absolutely,  when  I  bring 
him  here  ?" 

"  Absolutely.     When  may  we  expect  him  ?" 

"  Now." 

"Where?" 

"Here." 

"  What !     To-day  ?     This  Marti " 

"  You  are  looking  at  him." 

Tacon  started,  and  his  glance  fell  on  a  couple  of 
pistols  that  lay  on  the  desk  before  him.  He  always 
kept  them  there,  primed  and  loaded.  Marti  smiled, 
drew  from  beneath  his  coat  two  larger  ones,  hand- 
somely mounted  with  silver,  and  placed  them  on  the 
desk.  "  I  am  through  with  them,"  said  he. 

Tacon  looked  at  him  almost  with  admiration. 
"  You  begin  well,"  he  admitted,  "  and  you  shall 


Myths  and  Legends 

have  your  pardon.  But  until  you  have  fulfilled  your 
promise  and  helped  us  to  break  up  these  bands  of 
smugglers  and — ah " 

"  Oh,  speak  out :  Thieves  !     That  is  right." 

•'  Well,  thieves, — we  must  keep  you  under  guard." 

"  I  am  satisfied ;  only,  let  us  get  to  work  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  have  the  business  over." 

"  We  will  start  to-morrow." 

Marti  was  placed  in  a  large  room  in  a  hotel  under 
watch  of  the  constabulary,  but  free  to  order  any 
comfort  or  luxury  he  could  pay  for.  On  the  very 
next  morning  he  set  out  with  a  posse  of  soldiers  and 
visited  all  the  resorts  of  his  former  associates  in  the 
vicinity.  The  fellows  had  evidently  suspected 
something,  for  they  had  made  off.  Their  haunts 
being  thus  disclosed,  however,  much  of  their  plun- 
der was  afterward  recovered,  and  Marti's  surrender 
having  left  them  without  a  leader,  they  retreated  to 
distant  provinces,  and  safety  and  peace  were  restored 
to  the  island. 

If  Marti  had  any  misgivings  as  to  the  certainty  of 
his  pardon  after  this  exploit,  he  did  not  show  them. 
He  returned  to  General  Tacon's  office  as  cool  and 
self-possessed  as  if  he  were  running  a  boat-load  of 
spirits  under  the  noses  of  the  customs  officers. 

"  You  have  been  true  to  your  part  of  the  agree- 
ment," said  the  general,  "and  I  will  be  to  mine. 
Here  is  your  pardon,  signed  and  sealed,  and  this  is 
my  order  on  the  treasury  for  the  reward  for  your 
arrest.  Sly  dog !" 

126 


In  the  Caribbean 

"  I  accept  the  pardon  with  gratitude,  your  Excel- 
lency, but  I  do  not  need  the  money.  My  country 
is  poor.  Let  her  keep  it.  I  am  rich.  Never  mind 
how  I  became  so.  Yet,  if  I  may  claim  a  reward, 
give  me  a  monopoly  of  the  fisheries  on  this  coast. 
Havana  will  not  suffer  if  your  generosity  takes  this 
form." 

And  it  did  not.  He  got  the  fisheries,  but  he  spent 
his  profits  freely,  and  one  of  the  first  of  his  bene- 
factions was  the  construction  of  a  market  that  had 
no  superior  in  beauty  and  fitness  elsewhere  in  the 
world. 

THE  JUSTICE   OF   TACON 

WHEN  the  parades  were  over,  or  church  was 
out,  or  it  was  near  time  for  the  play,  one 
always  found  a  dozen  officers  and  gallants  sauntering 
down  the  Calle  de  Comercio,  bound  for  the  same 
place :  the  tobacco  shop  of  Miralda  Estalez.  In 
1835  Miralda  was  known  all  over  the  town  as  "the 
pretty  cigar  girl,"  and  it  was  quite  the  thing  for 
young  sprigs  of  family  to  lounge  against  her  counter, 
tell  her  how  charming  she  was,  make  her  light  their 
cigarettes  and  sometimes  take  the  first  puff  from  their 
cigars.  All  this  she  took  with  jesting  good-nature, 
chaffing  all  of  her  customers,  commiserating  with 
them  in  mocking  tones  on  their  fractured  hearts,  and 
lamenting  the  poverty  that  confined  their  purchases 
to  the  cheaper  brands  of  her  wares.  She  knew  how 
far  to  allow  a  compliment  to  go.  If  it  became  too 
127 


Myths  and  Legends 

free  the  smile  faded  from  her  lip,  her  black  eyes 
flashed,  and  an  angry  rose  mounted  into  the  clear 
olive  of  her  cheek. 

If  there  was  one  young  man  who,  more  than  any 
other,  caused  these  angry  symptoms  to  appear  it  was 
the  Count  Almonte.  His  attentions  had  become 
annoying.  She  had  told  him  that  his  flattery  was 
distasteful ;  that  her  betrothed  was  Pedro  Mantanez, 
the  boatman,  and  that  they  were  waiting  to  be  mar- 
ried only  until  their  savings  had  reached  a  certain 
figure.  After  one  of  these  dismissals  of  more  than 
usual  frankness,  the  count  went  to  his  apartments  in 
town,  arrayed  himself  in  his  uniform  of  honorary 
lieutenant  of  the  guards,  asked  the  commandant  to 
let  him  have  an  escort  of  half  a  dozen  men,  as  he 
expected  trouble  at  his  country-place  at  Cerito,  and 
within  an  hour  or  two  appeared  before  Miralda's 
little  shop.  He  entered  this  time  with  an  easy, 
confident  air  and  an  evil  smile.  "  You  must  come 
with  me,  my  beauty,"  he  said,  trying  to  chuck  her 
under  the  chin. 

"  Leave  my  place  at  once,  senor.  I  have  nothing 
more  to  say  to  you." 

"  Oh,  but  I  have  much  to  say  to  you ;  and  to 
begin  with,  I  have  a  warrant  for  your  arrest." 

"  Arrest !" 

"  For  theft, — the  theft  of  a  heart, — my  heart." 

*'  Your  jokes  are  always  in  such  wretched  taste. 
Your  heart !  You  never  had  one." 

"  Then  my  duty  becomes  all  the  easier.  You  see 
128 


In  the  Caribbean 

this  paper?  It  is  an  order  for  your  arrest.  Will 
you  go  quietly,  or  do  you  prefer  to  go  under  guard 
of  a  whole  company." 

Astonished,  confused,  afraid,  yet  hoping  that  one 
of  those  wretched  pleasantries  known  as  practical 
jokes  would  be  the  upshot  of  this  seeming  out- 
rage, the  girl  locked  her  door,  allowed  the  count  to 
assist  her  into  the  carriage  that  was  in  waiting,  and 
was  rapidly  driven,  not  to  the  jail,  not  to  the  forts, 
not  to  the  police  office,  but  out  of  town — to  Cerito. 
He  assisted  her  to  alight,  urged  her  hastily  in  at  the 
door  of  a  handsome  residence,  where  she  was  re- 
ceived by  a  couple  of  servants,  and  escorted  to  a 
large,  comfortably  furnished  apartment,  with  win- 
dows barred  after  the  fashion  usual  in  Spanish 
houses. 

"  This,  my  pretty  one,  is  your  home  for  the  fu- 
ture," explained  the  count,  dropping  easily  upon  a 
divan  and  lighting  a  cigar. 

"  What  place  is  this  r" 

"  It  is  my  house.  Ah,  but  it  shall  be  yours,  if 
only  you  are  kind.  It  is  for  you  to  say  how  long 
you  will  be  a  prisoner." 

"  But  the  arrest — the  order " 

"  Ha  !  ha  !  Mere  sham.  I  was  bound  to  have 
you  in  one  way,  if  I  could  not  get  you  in  another. 
All's  fair  in  love  and  war.  You  made  war.  I  made 
love." 

There  was  an  explosion  of  wrath,  of  scorn,  of 
hate  ;  there  were  tears,  cries,  prayers,  threats,  prom- 
9  I29 


Myths  and  Legends 

ises.  Count  Almonte  merely  laughed,  and  left  the 
young  woman  to  weep  herself  into  a  state  of  resig- 
nation or  exhaustion. 

Mantanez,  the  boatman,  learned  before  long  that 
the  shop  was  closed,  and  naturally  fearing  that 
Miralda  had  been  taken  ill,  he  hurried  around  to 
make  inquiry.  What  he  heard  was  disquieting 
enough,  but  he  could  not,  would  not  believe  it, 
until  he  had  gone  to  Cerito  to  see  for  himself.  In 
the  gown  of  a  monk  he  gained  access  to  the  grounds, 
and  walked  slowly  by,  singing  the  verse  of  a  song 
that  Miralda  liked,  meanwhile  scanning  the  windows 
closely.  His  heart  gave  a  leap,  and  then  sank  mis- 
erably low,  for  his  love  appeared  behind  the  bars  of 
an  upper  window.  She  stretched  her  hands  to  him 
appealingly,  told  him  in  a  few  half-whispered  words 
the  story  of  her  abduction,  implored  him  to  hurry 
back  to  town,  put  the  case  before  General  Tacon 
and  demand  justice. 

Mantanez  did  so.  The  tale  was  so  unusual  that 
the  general  made  him  swear  to  the  truth  of  it  on  his 
knees  before  the  crucifix.  Then  he  sent  for  the  count 
and  ordered  him  to  bring  the  girl  with  him.  In  two 
hours  they  were  at  the  palace.  The  general  looked 
searchingly  at  Almonte.  "  It  is  a  strange  charge  that 
has  been  brought  against  you,  count,"  said  he,  "  that 
of  stealing  a  woman  in  open  day,  taking  her  to  your 
house  and  keeping  her  under  lock  and  key." 

*'  The  young  woman  has  been  well  treated,  gen- 
eral." 

130 


In  the  Caribbean 

"  You  arrested  her  ?" 

"  Yes." 

"  In  our  uniform  ?" 

"  It  was  the  only  way.     I  loved  her." 
'  You  still  love  her  ?" 

"To  distraction." 

"  Humph  !  We  shall  see.  Orderly,  send  a  priest 
to  me,  and  tell  him  to  come  prepared  to  perform  a 
marriage  ceremony." 

Tacon  was  sphinx-like,  and  busied  himself  with 
his  papers.  The  count  was  puzzled,  yet  smiling,  and 
disposed  to  be  incredulous.  The  girl  and  her  lover 
wore  looks  of  doubt  and  fear.  The  priest  arrived. 

"Father,"  said  Tacon,  "you  will  make  the 
Count  Almonte  and  Miralda  Estalez  man  and  wife." 

"  Impossible  !"  exclaimed  the  count. 

"  You  have  just  said  that  you  loved  her." 

"  But,  your  Excellency,  you  seem  to  forget  that 
she  is  but  a  girl  of  the  people.  I  have  to  remind 
you  that  I  am  of  the  Spanish  nobility  ;  that  my 
ancestors — " 

"  Tush,  tush  !  What  have  your  ancestors  to  do 
here  ?  You  have  ruined  the  girl,  and  you  shall  make 
amends,  here  and  now." 

Miralda  clasped  her  hands  in  a  passion  of  en- 
treaty, and  her  betrothed,  the  boatman,  sank  upon  a 
bench,  overcome  with  despair. 

"  I  am  sorry  for  you,"  continued  Tacon,  "  but 
there  is  no  other  way.  Proceed  with  the  cere- 
mony." 


Myths  and  Legends 

Knowing  Tacon  to  be  inflexible,  and  with  a 
wholesome  dread  of  punishment  in  case  of  refusal, 
the  young  rake  finally  expressed  his  willingness  to 
yield  to  the  command,  and  with  a  freckled  trooper 
for  bridesmaid,  and  another  for  groomsman,  the 
marriage  rites  were  said.  While  the  priest  was 
speaking  Tacon  had  written  a  note  which  he  gave  to 
an  orderly,  instructing  him  to  deliver  it  to  the  cap- 
tain of  the  guard.  After  the  nobleman,  flushed  and 
trembling  with  anger,  and  the  half-fainting  girl 
had  been  pronounced  man  and  wife,  the  boatman 
meanwhile  abandoning  himself  to  a  frenzy  of  tears, 
Tacon  said  to  the  count,  "  Your  wife  will  remain 
here  for  the  present.  It  is  my  order  that  you  re- 
turn to  your  country-house  alone.  You  will  depart 
at  once." 

With  blazing  eye,  widened  nostril,  and  hard-set 
jaw,  Count  Almonte  left  the  room  without  any 
recognition  of  his  bride,  without  the  usual  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  governor-general's  presence.  Tacon 
bade  the  young  woman  be  seated,  and  told  Man- 
tanez  also  to  remain,  as  he  wished  to  speak  with 
them  after  a  time.  Ten  minutes  passed.  Some  guns 
were  heard  at  a  distance.  In  ten  minutes  more  an 
officer  hastily  entered  the  room.  Tacon  looked  up 
from  his  writing.  "  Report,  captain,"  he  com- 
manded. 

"  I  have   to  inform   your   Excellency  that  your 
orders  have  been  obeyed.     The  Count  Almonte  lies 
dead  with  nine  bullets  in  his  body." 
132 


In  the  Caribbean 

The  general  arose,  took  the  hand  of  the  young 
woman  and  placed  it  in  that  of  the  boatman. 
"  Countess,"  he  said,  "you  are  the  widow  of  a  rich 
man.  You  are  sole  heir  to  the  estate  of  the  late 
Count  Almonte.  As  to  you,  sir,  I  presume  you 
have  no  objection  to  wedding  a  lady  so  well  pro- 
vided with  this  world's  goods.  Adieu,  Madame 
Countess,  and  may  your  second  marriage  be  happier 
than  your  first.'* 

THE   CITED 

DID  Alonzo  Morelos  begrudge  liberty  or  hap- 
piness to  Felipe  Guayos  ?  Surely  the  life  of 
a  Havanese  artisan  could  have  mattered  little  to  a 
prosperous  lawyer.  Politics  may  have  set  the  big 
man's  enmity  against  the  little  one,  or  it  may  pos- 
sibly have  been  that  more  advanced  form  of  politics 
that  is  called  patriotism.  It  was  a  good  time  for  a 
man  to  refrain  from  airing  his  opinions,  unless  they 
were  orthodox,  for  the  revolution  of  1829  had  just 
been  declared.  If  Guayos  was  a  party  to  this  rising 
he  was  an  indifferent  and  inactive  one,  or  else 
he  kept  his  counsel  wondrous  well.  His  acquaint- 
ances testified  that  he  was  industrious, — that  is,  he 
practised  what  in  Havana  passed  for  industry, — was 
fond  of  his  wife,  cared  little  for  cock-fighting  or 
the  bull  ring,  was  of  placid  demeanor,  and  was  alto- 
gether the  sort  of  man  who  could  be  relied  on  not 
to  attend  secret  meetings  or  lose  valued  sleep  by 
133 


Myths  and  Legends 

drilling  in  hot  barns  or  chigger-infested  clearings  in 
the  woods.  Yet  it  was  on  Morelos's  oath  that  this 
obscure  citizen  was  arrested. 

The  tongues  clacked  up  and  down  the  by-ways  : 
What  was  the  rich  man's  interest  in  the  poor  one  ? 
the  professional  man's  in  the  mechanic  ?  the  man  of 
society  in  the  man  unknown  ?  Then  it  was  true, 
eh  ?  that  the  mulatto  (for  Guayos  was  a  "  yellow 
man")  had  spoken  to  the  lawyer  familiarly  in  the 
street  in  presence  of  ladies  and  officers  ?  Maybe. 
The  laundress  at  the  second  house  down  the  street 
had  said  so,  but,  fie !  it  was  only  on  a  matter  of 
business.  Tut !  Business  was  no  excuse,  consid- 
ering that  Don  Alonzo  was  of  Spanish  parentage, 
while  the  other  had  been  nothing  but  a  Cuban  for 
two  centuries.  ,To  forget  this  breach  or  try  to 
bridge  it,  to  presume  on  the  tolerance  of  an  occa- 
sional employer,  unless  one  were  a  slave  or  a  servant 
and  used  to  indulgence — that  was  not  to  be  forgiven. 
A  rumor  that  travelled  more  quietly  was  that  More- 
los  himself  was  a  revolutionary  and  had  caused  this 
arrest  as  a  blind,  or  in  order  to  silence  a  tongue  that 
might  speak  damage.  A  third  rumor,  that  went  in 
a  whisper,  and  so  went  farther  than  the  others,  said 
that  the  yellow  man  had  a  pretty  wife,  and  that  the 
lawyer  had  been  seen  to  call  at  the  little  house  in  the 
master's  absence.  This  tale  seemed  to  be  doubted,  for 
the  wife  of  the  butcher  gave  it  as  her  opinion  that 
the  Sefiora  Guayos  was  too  rusty  of  complexion  to 
be  pleasing,  and  the  Senor  Morelos  was  so  faultless 
134 


In  the  Caribbean 

in  his  appearance  and  his  taste;  the  club  steward's 
unmarried  sister  declared  the  senora's  manners  to  be 
rustic  and  her  voice  loud  ;  the  woman  in  the  car- 
penter's family  would  lend  no  ear  to  such  a  scandal 
because  the  subject  of  it  was  dumpy,  shapeless,  and 
dressed  absurdly,  even  for  the  wife  of  a  stonemason. 
Howbeit,  the  little  woman  was  now  in  grief,  for 
her  husband  lay  in  jail  awaiting  trial  on  the  gravest 
charge  that  could  be  brought  against  a  Cuban, — the 
charge  of  treason.  In  that  day,  as  on  many  sad 
days  that  were  to  follow,  to  be  charged  with  disaf- 
fection toward  the  crown  was  virtually  to  be  sen- 
tenced to  death. 

Cuban  law  was  at  least  as  tardy  and  involved  as 
any,  but  on  the  day  when  they  tried  Guayos  it  was 
strangely  brisk.  The  stifling,  unclean  court-room 
was  crowded,  but  of  all  the  company  none  seemed 
to  feel  so  little  concern  in  the  proceedings  as  the 
accused  man  himself.  Through  an  open  window  he 
saw  a  couple  of  palms  swinging  softly  against  the 
sky  in  the  warm  wind.  The  trees  appeared  to  pa- 
cify, to  fascinate  him.  They  were  his  realities,  and 
the  goggling  throng,  the  judge,  the  officers,  were 
visions.  Often  when  his  name  was  spoken  by  a 
witness  or  examiner  he  would  look  around  with 
a  start,  then  fall  into  his  dreams  again.  His  case 
was  traversed  without  waste  of  words.  Evidence 
was  adduced  to  prove  that  he  had  once  owned  a  gun, 
had  attended  a  certain  meeting,  had  carried  letters 
to  such  and  such  persons,  had  spoken  equivocal 
'35 


Myths  and  Legends 

phrases,  had  been  seen  to  lift  his  nose  in  passing 
certain  men,  had  admitted  a  suspect  to  his  house  at 
night.  He  was  declared  guilty.  The  celerity  in 
reaching  this  verdict  led  his  friends  to  believe  that 
it  had  been  agreed  upon  in  advance. 

During  the  last  hour  of  the  trial  Guayos  had 
aroused  from  his  revery,  had  turned  from  the  win- 
dow, and  had  fixed  his  eyes  steadily  on  Morelos, 
who  was  seated  among  the  lawyers  in  the  centre  of 
the  room.  Morelos  returned  the  gaze  calmly  for  a 
time ;  then  he  frowned  and  turned  the  pages  of  a 
law-book.  After  a  little  he  moistened  his  lips  with 
his  tongue,  took  a  studied  attitude  of  listlessness, 
and  showed  signs  of  weariness  and  boredom.  He 
did  not  look  at  the  prisoner  again  until  the  verdict 
had  been  given. 

When  the  chief  judge  put  the  usual  question  as  to 
whether  the  convicted  man  had  anything  to  say  why 
death-sentence  should  not  be  passed  upon  him, 
Guayos  arose,  his  face  pale  but  fixed  in  a  stony 
calm.  Looking  at  neither  judge  nor  audience,  but 
straight  at  his  accuser,  with  eyes  that  were  no  longer 
the  eyes  that  had  dreamed  upon  the  palms,  so  great 
and  black  they  were  and  searching,  he  said,  in  a 
clear,  tense  voice,  "  I  go  to  my  death.  It  is  useless 
to  speak,  for  you  have  condemned  me.  But  I  cite 
you,  Don  Alonzo  Morelos,  to  appear  beside  me  at 
the  bar  of  God,  one  year  from  my  death-day,  and 
testify  how  I  came  to  my  end." 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence  ;  then  moans  and 
136 


In  the  Caribbean 

murmurs  in  the  crowd.  The  lawyer  was  white,  as 
with  wrath.  The  judges  gestured  to  the  officers  and 
left  the  bench.  The  court  was  cleared.  As  he  was 
led  away,  Guayos  looked  once  more  at  the  palms, 
and  half  smiled  as  a  breath  of  freshened  air  came  in 
at  the  window.  Palms  !  Where  had  he  been  told 
of  them  ?  What  did  they  mean  ?  Had  they  not 
somewhere,  in  some  far  land,  been  waved  in  victory 
when  One  innocent  was  about  to  suffer  ?  Were 
not  palms  awarded  in  another  world  to  the  meek 
and  the  honest  who  had  been  despitefully  used  in 
this  ? 

Last  to  leave  the  room  was  Morelos.  He  had 
remained,  seated  at  a  table,  biting  a  pen,  fingering 
some  papers,  gazing  abstractedly  at  the  vacant  bench. 
The  whoop  of  a  barefooted,  black-faced  urchin  in 
the  corridor  roused  him.  With  a  scowl  and  a  shrug 
he  slowly  resumed  his  hat  and  went  to  his  home  by 
a  roundabout  way. 

Priests  called  daily  at  the  prison.  Guayos  made 
no  appeal,  asked  for  no  delay.  The  loyalists  were 
clamoring  for  an  example  that  should  stay  the 
revolution.  In  a  week  the  condemned  man  was 
hanged.  An  odd  thing  happened  at  the  execu- 
tion :  the  rope  had  slipped  a  little,  and  the  knot, 
working  toward  the  front,  had  left  an  impress  there 
after  the  body  was  cut  down,  as  of  two  crossed 
fingers.  The  friends  of  Guayos  held  this  to  be  a 
sign  of  grace. 

Now,  if  there  were  any  in  the  world  to  pray  for 
»37 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  peace  of  a  human  soul,  it  was  not  the  soul  of 
Guayos  that  asked  it.  He  had  affirmed  his  inno- 
cence to  the  end,  had  been  shrived,  had  gone  to  the 
gallows  with  a  dauntless  tread,  and  there  were  palm 
branches  on  his  coffin.  But  the  lawyer  ?  In  a 
month  after  the  trial  white  hairs  appeared  among 
his  locks,  hitherto  as  black  as  coal.  He  grew  gray 
and  dry  in  his  complexion,  his  shoulders  began  to 
stoop,  his  eyes  lost  their  clearness  and  boldness,  his 
mouth  was  no  longer  firm.  Often  he  wore  a  har- 
ried, hunted  look.  Yet  they  said  he  was  growing 
softer  in  his  humor,  that  he  oftener  went  to  church, 
that  he  gave  more  for  charity  than  other  men  of  his 
means,  and  that  if  the  widow  Guayos  did  not  know 
from  whom  the  five  hundred  pesetas  came  that  a 
messenger  left  at  her  home  one  night  the  neighbors 
pretended  to.  Don  Morelos  became  an  object  of  a 
wider  interest  than  he  knew.  Even  the  boys  in  the 
street  would  point  as  he  passed,  with  head  bent  and 
hands  clasped  behind  his  back,  and  whisper,  "  There 
goes  El  Citado"  (the  cited),  and  among  the  com- 
moners he  was  known  as  well  by  that  name  as  by 
the  one  his  parents  had  given  to  him.  But  he  ap- 
peared less  and  less  in  public.  He  began  to  neglect 
his  practice  ;  he  resigned  from  his  club ;  he  avoided 
the  company  of  his  former  associates,  taking  his 
walks  at  night  alone,  even  though  the  sky  was  moon- 
less, storms  were  threatening,  and  the  cut-throat 
crew  were  abroad  that  made  life  at  some  hours  and 
in  some  quarters  of  the  city  not  of  a  pin's  fee  in 
138 


In  the  Caribbean 

value.  His  housekeeper  told  a  neighbor  that  on 
some  nights  he  paced  the  floor  till  dawn,  and  that 
now  and  again  he  would  mutter  to  himself  and  ap- 
pear to  strike  something.  Was  he  smiting  his  own 
heart  ? 

Before  long  it  was  rumored,  likewise,  that  the 
grave  of  Guayos  was  haunted,  or  worse,  for  a  black 
figure  had  been  seen,  on  some  of  the  darkest  nights, 
squatted  or  kneeling  before  his  tomb.  It  was 
remarkable  that  this  revolutionist  should  have  had  a 
burial-place  of  his  own,  when  all  his  relatives  and  a 
majority  of  the  people  in  his  station  were  interred  in 
rented  graves,  and  their  bones  thrown  into  the  com- 
mon ditch  if  the  rent  were  not  paid  at  the  end  of  the 
second  year.  Certain  old  women  affirmed  that  this 
watching,  waiting  figure  in  the  dark  had  horns  and 
green  eyes,  like  a  cat's,  while  other  people  said  that 
it  was  merely  the  form  of  a  man,  taller,  thinner, 
more  bent  than  Guayos;  therefore  not  his  ghost. 
But  what  man  ? 

The  anniversary  of  the  hanging  had  come.  The 
small  hours  of  the  morning  were  tolling,  heavily, 
slowly,  over  the  roofs  of  the  sleeping  city.  Sleep- 
ing ?  There  was  one  who  had  no  rest  that  night. 
An  upper  window  of  the  house  of  Morelos  looked 
out  upon  a  court  in  which  two  palm  trees  grew. 
They  had  been  tall  and  flourishing.  One  might  see 
them  from  the  court-room.  But  for  a  year  they  had 
been  shedding  their  leaflets  and  turning  sere.  To- 
night their  yellow  stems  had  clashed  and  whispered 
139 


Myths  and  Legends 

until  the  wind  was  down,  leaving  the  night  sullen, 
brooding,  thick,  starless,  with  dashes  of  rain  and  a 
raw  chill  on  the  ground  that  brought  out  all  the 
malefic  odors  of  the  pavement.  The  window  on 
the  side  toward  the  court  was  closed  and  curtained. 
The  one  overlooking  the  street  was  slightly  open, 
and  if  the  night-bird  prowling  toward  the  den  he 
called  his  home  had  looked  up,  or  had  listened,  he 
would  have  seen  the  glimmer  of  a  candle  and  heard 
the  eager  scratching  of  a  pen  and  rustling  of  papers. 
For  an  hour  in  the  first  half  of  the  night  Morelos 
had  been  walking  about  his  chamber.  At  about 
three  in  the  morning  the  housekeeper,  whose  room 
was  at  the  opposite  end  of  a  corridor  from  her 
master's,  found  herself  sitting  upright  in  bed.  She 
did  not  know  why.  Nobody  had  called  to  her. 
Listening  intently,  as  if  she  knew  that  somebody 
was  about  to  speak,  she  distinguished  a  faint  sound 
of  crumpling  paper.  A  chair  was  moved  hastily, 
and  there  was  a  cry  in  a  strained  voice,  "  No,  no ! 
My  God!"  Then  the  house  shook.  She  bolted 
her  door  and  prayed.  In  the  morning  twilight  Don 
Alonzo  Morelos  lay  very  still  on  the  floor  of  his 
chamber,  with  a  mark  on  his  throat  like  that  made 
by  the  pressure  of  two  crossed  fingers. 
The  citation  had  been  obeyed ! 


140 


In  the  Caribbean 

THE   VIRGIN'S   DIAMOND 

MIGUEL  JOSE  was  a  loving  and  dutiful  son, 
but  he  could  help  the  old  folks  only  a  little. 
He  had  a  heartache  every  time  a  letter  came  from 
Leon,  for  he  knew  it  held  a  request  for  money,  and 
a  private's  pay,  which  at  best  is  small,  is  frequently 
nothing  in  a  Spanish  regiment.  Young  Miguel  had 
been  on  service  in  Havana  for  a  couple  of  years, 
and  his  parents  had  been  growing  steadily  poorer. 
He  could  hardly  buy  cigarettes.  First  it  was  a  pig 
that  was  wanted  at  home ;  then  a  better  roof  on  the 
cottage ;  then  a  contribution  for  a  new  altar  in  the 
village  church  ;  finally  it  was  illness,  and  his  mother 
needed  medicines  and  delicacies.  How  could  he 
get  money?  The  paymaster  had  received  none  in 
months,  he  said,  and  even  the  officers  were  in  debt. 
His  fellow-soldiers  ?  No  ;  they  were  as  poorly  off 
as  he, — so  he  could  not  borrow.  He  could  not 
steal  in  the  streets,  for  his  uniform  would  betray 
him.  He  was  not  allowed  to  accept  work  from 
civilians,  for  that  was  against  the  army  regulations. 
After  dress-parade  one  evening  he  went  to  a  lonely 
place  behind  the  barracks  and  cried.  Then,  having 
leave  of  absence,  he  went  to  one  of  the  churches 
and  knelt  for  a  long  time  before  the  Virgin's  shrine, 
imploring  her,  with  moans  and  tears,  to  give  him 
some  means  of  relieving  his  mother's  distress.  She 
was  a  mother.  She  would  understand.  She  would 
pity  the  sufferings  of  others.  There  was  no  an- 
141 


Myths  and  Legends 

swer.  He  left  the  dark  and  empty  building  tired  and 
disheartened. 

Next  evening  he  returned,  and  for  an  hour  and 
more  he  begged  the  Virgin  to  bestow  some  material 
mercy  on  his  mother.  Looking  up  he  was  startled, 
though  delighted,  to  see  that  the  statue  of  Mary  was 
rolling  its  glass  eyes  upon  him,  and  tears  stood  in 
them.  He  bent  to  the  floor,  overcome  by  his  emo- 
tions. Then  a  light  step  sounded  over  the  stones, 
and,  behold !  the  Virgin  had  left  her  pedestal  and 
was  regarding  him  with  kindness  and  pity  in  her 
face.  Slowly  she  extended  her  hand.  He  gazed 
with  new  astonishment,  for  this  was  the  right  hand, 
bearing  the  famous  diamond  which  had  been  placed 
upon  it  some  years  before  by  a  pious  resident  of 
Havana.  It  could  not  be  that  she  intended  this 
treasure  for  him !  Yes,  she  smiled  and  nodded  as- 
suringly.  With  trembling  lingers  he  withdrew  the 
jewel,  kissed  the  outreached  hand,  stammered  his 
thanks,  and,  hardly  waiting  till  she  had  remounted 
her  pedestal,  ran  from  the  church. 

There  was  in  the  city  at  that  time  one  Seiior  Hyman 
Izaaks,  whose  business — which  a  cruel  law  required 
him  to  follow  in  secret — was  the  relief  of  pecuniary 
embarrassments,  on  security,  and  our  soldier  went 
straightway  to  the  office  of  that  philanthropist,  ar- 
riving breathless  but  happy.  Senor  Izaaks  advanced  a 
larger  sum  on  the  diamond  than  Jose  had  dared  to  hope 
for.  He  wrote  a  hasty  letter,  enclosing  the  bank- 
notes, and  mailed  it  to  his  parents  on  that  very  night. 
142 


In  the  Caribbean 

Next  morning  the  sacristan  of  the  church,  who 
was  making  his  rounds  and  placing  fresh  candles  on 
the  altar,  received  a  shock.  The  Virgin's  diamond 
was  gone !  The  priests,  the  bishop,  the  governor, 
the  general,  the  police  were  notified,  and  there  was 
a  mighty  coil.  What  sacrilegious  wretch  had  done 
this  thing  ?  Miguel  had  been  seen  to  enter  the 
church  on  the  previous  night ;  therefore  suspicion 
attached  to  him.  He  was  arrested  and  charged  with 
the  crime.  To  the  astonishment  of  all,  he  made  no 
secret  of  it,  though  he  protested  against  the  word 
"  theft."  He  was  proud  to  have  been  the  recipient 
of  kindness  from  heaven,  and  he  related,  frankly 
and  circumstantially,  how  he  had  appealed  to  the 
Virgin,  for  what  good  purpose,  how  she  had  an- 
swered, how  Senor  Izaaks  had  taken  the  stone  and 
given  him  money  for  it.  A  military  court  was  or- 
dered to  try  him,  but  it  was  puzzled  to  know  what 
to  do  with  him.  If  the  fellow  were  a  common 
thief  he  deserved  more  than  prison  :  he  merited  the 
gallows  and  a  quicklime  burial,  for  he  had  added 
sacrilege  to  robbery.  But  if  he  were  a  thief,  why 
did  he  confess  so  freely,  and  even  glory  in  his  sin  ? 
Then,  too,  if  it  were  the  wish  of  the  Virgin  that 
he  should  receive  this  gift,  by  what  right  did  any 
civic  or  military  body  interfere,  for  would  it  not  be 
blasphemy  to  doubt  or  deny  the  designs  of  Provi- 
dence ?  Was  not  the  accused  soldier  under  the 
acknowledged  protection  of  the  Virgin?  Would 
she  not  visit  with  indignation,  if  she  did  not  vig- 
'43 


Myths  and  Legends 

orously  punish,  the  attempt  to  set  aside  her  bene- 
fits ? 

Truly,  here  was  a  pickle !  The  confession  of 
the  accused  man  had  enabled  the  police  to  secure 
the  diamond, — which  they  did  without  any  formali- 
ties of  payment  to  Senor  Izaaks,  to  his  unbounded 
grief, — and  the  ring  being  restored  to  the  finger  of 
the  statue,  and  the  money  being  on  its  way  across 
the  sea,  and  the  soldier  being  entitled  to  some  part 
of  it  as  back-pay,  the  court-martial  at  length  resolved 
to  release  Miguel  Jose  from  arrest.  It  did  so  with 
the  historic  finding  of  "  Not  guilty,  but  don't  do  it 
again." 

A   SPANISH   HOLOFERNES 

WHILE  it  has  been  the  fate  of  women  in  the 
Spanish  islands  to  suffer  even  more  than 
their  husbands  and  brothers  from  severity  and  injus- 
tice, instances  are  not  lacking  in  which  they  have 
shown  an  equal  spirit  with  the  men.  In  the  in- 
surrections a  few  of  them  openly  took  the  field, 
and  the  Maid  of  Las  Tunas  is  remembered, — a 
Cuban  Joan  of  Arc,  who  rode  at  the  head  of  the 
rebel  troops,  battled  as  stoutly  as  the  veterans,  and 
was  of  special  service  as  scout  and  spy.  Three 
times  she  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards. 
Twice  she  coaxed  her  way  to  freedom.  The  third 
time  the  governor  gave  her  to  a  crowd  of  brutal 
soldiers,  who  afterward  burned  her  alive. 

Quite  another  sort  of  woman  was   Nina  Diaz, 
144 


In  the  Caribbean 

whom  Weyler  intended  to  compliment  when  he 
said  she  was  the  only  loyal  Cuban,  and  who  is 
hated  by  all  other  Cubans  as  a  fiend.  Her  love  for 
a  Spanish  captain  was  cleverly  played  upon  by 
Weyler,  who  induced  her  to  become  his  spy.  She 
begged  contributions  for  the  insurgents.  Of  course, 
those  who  gave  were  in  sympathy  with  the  insur- 
rection, so  that  all  she  had  to  do  was  to  place  her 
list  of  subscribers  in  the  hands  of  Weyler,  who 
promptly  shot  or  imprisoned  them,  or  herded  them 
among  the  reconcentrados  to  die  of  starvation. 
When  the  Cubans  caught  her  she  said  that  she  had 
a  father  and  a  brother  in  their  ranks, — which  was 
true, — and  was  on  her  way  to  them.  Where  could 
they  be  found  ?  They  told  her  and  set  her  free,  and 
in  the  morning  the  Spanish  troops  were  on  the 
march  to  their  hiding-place. 

It  is  pleasanter  to  read  of  Spanish  women  serving 
their  own  cause  than  of  Cuban  women  who  be- 
trayed their  country,  and  the  Spanish  dames  have 
often  shown  as  much  grit  and  pride  as  the  dons. 
Pauline  Macias  is  alleged  to  have  led  the  soldiers 
back  to  their  guns  in  San  Juan  de  Puerto  Rico  after 
they  had  run  from  Sampson's  shells.  She  seized  a 
sword  from  an  officer,  beat  the  runaways  with  it, 
roused  them  by  pleas  and  commands,  and  kept  them 
at  their  work  until  their  pieces  were  disabled  or  the 
ammunition  had  given  out. 

In  the  tradition  of  an  earlier  and  slighter  war  the 
heroine  is  a  woman  of  still  different  type.  Isabella, 

10  MS 


Myths  and  Legends 

wife  of  the  Doctor  Diaz,  was  often  called  "  the 
queen"  in  Bayamo,  not  merely  because  of  her  name, 
but  because  of  her  piety,  her  charities,  her  beauty, 
and  her  dignified  bearing.  She  was  young,  well 
reared,  distinguished,  and  her  home  was  a  centre  for 
the  best  society  of  the  town.  Among  those  who 
felt  free  to  call  without  invitation  were  several  of 
the  officers  of  the  garrison,  most  of  them  models  in 
deportment  and  dress,  and  of  sufficient  breeding  to 
refrain  from  allusion  to  politics ;  for  the  Diazes, 
though  Spanish  by  only  one  remove,  were  avowedly 
Cuban  in  their  sympathies,  and  the  revolution  was 
fast  coming  to  a  focus.  It  was  understood,  how- 
ever, that  Doctor  Diaz  would  remain  a  non-combat- 
ant, for  the  duty  he  owed  to  suffering  humanity  was 
higher  than  the  duty  his  friends  tried  to  persuade 
him  he  owed  to  his  country.  Hence,  the  physician 
and  his  wife  would  be  under  the  white  flag,  it  was 
supposed,  and  if  remarks  were  made  as  to  their 
share  in  the  approaching  hostilities,  it  was  always 
with  a  frank  and  laughing  admission  on  their  part 
and  a  jest  on  that  of  the  accusers. 

Among  all  the  men  in  garrison  but  one  was  actu- 
ally disliked  by  the  young  practitioner  and  his  wife. 
Captain  Ramon  Gonzales  had  been  quartered  upon 
them  once  for  a  week  in  an  emergency,  and  his 
removal  to  another  household  had  been  asked  for. 
It  was  not  that  he  lacked  manners  or  was  obviously 
disrespectful,  but  his  compliments  to  the  lady  of  the 
house  were  something  too  frequent,  his  regard  of 
146 


In  the  Caribbean 

her  too  admiring,  his  air  toward  the  doctor  that  of 
the  soldier  and  superior,  rather  than  the  friend. 
Sefiora  Diaz  never  saw  him  alone,  never  invited 
him  to  call.  He  disappeared  one  afternoon,  and  it 
was  understood  that  he  had  received  a  summons  to 
return  to  Havana. 

The  rising  came  at  last.  Fires  glimmered  on  the 
hills,  bodies  of  men  assembled  in  the  woods,  the 
drumming  and  brawling  of  troops  were  heard  in 
hitherto  quiet  villages,  and  prayers  for  the  success 
of  the  Cuban  arms  were  offered  in  a  hundred 
churches.  But  not  all  the  women  were  content  to 
pray.  They  were  helping  to  arm  their  husbands, 
brothers,  sweethearts,  sons  ;  they  worked  together 
in  assembling  supplies,  hospital  stores,  clothing,  and 
even  in  casting  bullets. 

One  or  two  nights  after  the  first  blow  had  been 
struck  there  came  a  loud  summons  at  the  door  of 
Doctor  Diaz.  Thinking  it  a  call  for  his  services,  he 
stepped  into  the  dark  street,  when  he  was  seized, 
handcuffed,  placed  between  two  lines  of  soldiers,  and 
marched  away  to  prison.  The  despairing  cry  of  his 
wife,  as  she  peered  from  the  open  door  and  saw  this 
arrest,  was  the  only  farewell.  He  never  heard  her 
voice  again.  He  was  shot  a  few  days  later  as  an 
enemy  to  Spain,  the  specific  charge  against  him 
being  that  of  "aiding  and  sheltering"  a  rebel,  the 
said  rebel  being  a  feeble-minded  youth,  a  "  moon- 
struck," to  whom,  as  a  matter  of  charity,  he  had 
given  occasional  work  in  weeding  his  garden.  On 
147 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  night  after  Doctor  Diaz's  arrest  his  wife  was 
requested  by  a  messenger  to  go  quickly  to  a  small 
house  on  the  edge  of  the  town  to  meet  one  who 
might  secure  his  release,  but  wished  to  consult  with 
her  as  to  the  means.  Hastily  wrapping  a  mantilla 
about  her,  she  followed  the  messenger  to  the  street ; 
then,  as  acting  under  sudden  impulse,  left  him  wait- 
ing for  a  moment,  while  she  returned  to  bolt  a 
door.  In  that  moment,  unseen  by  the  messenger, 
she  slipped  a  sheathed  stiletto  into  the  bosom  of 
her  dress. 

The  house  was  a  ramshackle  cottage,  with  a  damp 
and  moldy  air  pervading  it  within  and  without. 
The  negro  messenger  opened  the  door  without 
knocking,  held  it  open  while  she  passed  in,  then 
abruptly  closed  it  and  turned  a  key  on  the  out- 
side. The  woman  was  trapped.  In  a  minute 
voices  were  heard  in  the  street ;  that  of  the  messen- 
ger, and  one  that  she  knew  better, — and  worse, — 
the  voice  of  Captain  Gonzales. 

The  situation  flashed  upon  her.  Her  husband 
had  been  falsely  charged.  She  had  been  lured  to 
this  place,  and  would  leave  it  dead  or  dishonored. 
The  walls  of  the  cabin  swam  before  her,  and  she 
had  nearly  fallen  when  the  sound  of  the  key  in  the 
lock  aroused  her.  A  fierce  chill  shook  her  frame. 
She  held  to  a  table  for  support.  A  tumult  of 
thought  possessed  her,  but  as  the  door  swung  open 
it  quieted  to  a  single  idea :  hardly  a  thought :  a  pur- 
pose. 

148 


In  the  Caribbean 

In  the  light  of  the  single  candle  that  stood  on  the 
table  she  saw  Captain  Gonzales  enter.  He  had 
been  at  the  wine.  His  eyes  were  heavy,  his  cheeks 
a  dusky  red,  his  mouth  was  more  sensual,  his  jaw 
more  cruel  than  ever.  He  stepped  inside  and  locked 
the  door.  "  Your  pardon,  senora,  for  these  strong 
measures,"  he  said,  in  a  thick  tone.  "  I  am  a  victim 
of  love  and  hate.  Your  hus — another — has  hated 
me.  Your  husband  is — is — likely  to  be  absent  for 
some  time.  You  will  require  a  protector.  I  have 
the  honor  to  offer  myself.  I  throw  myself  at  the 
feet  of  the  loveliest  lady  in  Cuba.  I  tell  her  of 
the  love  that  for  the  past  year  has  turned  my  life  to 
torture.  I  will  be  her  companion,  her  adorer, 
only — ha !  You  smile  !  It  is  not  possible  you  care 
for  me?  It  is  joy  too  great.  Senora!  Isabella! 
Can  it  be  ?" 

"  And  you  never  suspected  it  before  ?" 
The  face  was  white,  the  lips  twitched,  but  the 
smile  remained.  The  woman  cast  down  her  eyes — 
what  star-bright  eyes  they  were ! — then  slowly 
opened  her  arms.  With  a  roaring  laugh  Gonzales 
strode  across  the  room.  The  laugh  changed  to  a 
gurgling  cry  as  he  placed  his  hands  upon  her  waist. 
His  hand  went  to  his  sword,  but  fumbled ;  his  knees 
shook ;  then  he  fell  backward  at  full  length,  with  his 
heart's  blood  pulsating  from  a  dagger-wound.  The 
wife  of  Doctor  Diaz  picked  up  the  key  that  had 
fallen  from  his  fingers,  unlocked  the  door,  and  re- 
turned to  her  home  alone. 
149 


Myths  and  Legends 

THE   COURTEOUS   BATTLE 

IN  the  bay  where  more  than  three  and  a  half 
centuries  later  the  Spanish  fleet  was  to  be 
destroyed  the  don  once  fought  the  enemy  with 
different  result.  It  was  in  1538,  in  the  harbor  of 
Santiago  de  Cuba,  that  the  battle  occurred, — San- 
tiago of  sad  memory,  with  its  shambles,  where  in- 
surgents were  shot  by  platoons ;  with  its  landings, 
where  slaves  were  unloaded  at  night  and  marched 
thence  to  the  plantations,  like  mules  and  cattle ; 
with  its  Morro,  connected  by  wells  and  traps  with 
caves  in  the  rock  beneath,  where  bodies  of  men 
mysteriously  done  to  death  slipped  away  on  the 
tide.  A  French  privateer  had  appeared  before  the 
town,  demanding  ransom  or  surrender.  Luckily  for 
Santiago,  a  Spanish  caravel  had  arrived  a  few  days 
before,  under  command  of  Captain  Diego  Perez, 
and  this  gallant  sailor  offered  to  go  out  and  defend 
the  town.  His  ship  was  attacked  as  soon  as  it  came 
within  range  of  the  enemy's  guns,  and,  turning  so  as 
to  deliver  an  effective  fire,  he  gave  as  good  as  he  got. 
All  that  day  the  people  of  the  town  heard  the  pound- 
ing of  the  brass  pieces  and  saw  the  smudge  of  powder 
against  the  blue  to  the  south,  yet  at  the  fall  of  even- 
ing little  damage  had  been  done :  the  ships  lay  too 
far  apart,  and  the  aim  on  both  sides  was  ridiculous. 
Each  commander  had  seen  enough  of  his  adver- 
sary to  respect  him,  however,  and  moved  by  a  com- 
mon impulse  they  raised  white  flags,  declared  for  a 
150 


In  the  Caribbean 

cessation  of  hostilities  through  the  night,  and  every 
night,  so  long  as  they  should  continue  to  oppose  one 
another.  Then  followed  an  exchange  of  fruit  and 
wine,  of  which  both  crews  were  in  need,  and,  con- 
fident in  the  honor  of  their  enemies,  all  hands  slept 
as  tired  men  usually  sleep.  Said  the  Spanish  cap- 
tain to  the  French  commander  in  the  morning, 
"  Artillery  is  a  cowardly  and  abominable  invention. 
It  is  desired  to  hurt  a  foe  while  those  who  serve  it 
run  no  risk.  How  say  you  if  we  put  the  tompions 
back  into  our  cannon  and  fight,  as  chivalric  men 
should  ever  fight,  with  sword  and  pike  ?" 

To  this  the  Frenchman  gave  willing  consent,  and, 
the  ships  ranging  near,  the  battle  reopened,  after 
prayers  and  breakfast,  to  some  purpose.  With  cries 
of  "  Santo  lago !"  the  Spanish  tried  to  board  the 
pirate  ship,  but  could  not  secure  a  footing.  Blows 
were  exchanged  throughout  the  day,  save  when  one 
ship  or  the  other  drew  off,  that  the  wounded  might 
have  attention,  and  the  dying  prayers,  for  much 
blood  was  shed  and  several  lost  their  lives.  At  the 
end  of  the  day  both  commanders  declared  their 
admiration  for  the  skill  and  courage  of  their  oppo- 
nents, and  again  gave  presents  of  fruit  and  wine  as 
they  stopped  work  until  the  morrow.  Perez  sent 
ashore  that  night  to  tell  the  people  of  Santiago  that 
fighting  was  an  exhausting  business,  and  to  some 
extent  a  risky  one,  and  would  they  kindly  send  a 
few  able-bodied  fellows  to  replace  the  dead  and 
disabled  on  his  ship  ? 


Myths  and  Legends 

The  response  to  this  call  was  so  meagre  that  he 
began  to  mistrust  his  countrymen,  and  he  asked  if, 
in  case  he  lost  his  ship,  the  town  would  reimburse 
him,  considering  that  he  was  risking  his  all  in  their 
defence.  After  much  debate  the  townsmen  replied, 
through  their  officials,  that  they  were  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  make  good  his  loss,  but  they  trusted  that 
such  a  calamity  would  not  be  possible;  that  he 
would  maintain  a  stout  heart  and  fight  on  to  prove 
the  superiority  of  Spanish  valor  to  French  craft; 
that  the  blessed  Santo  lago  would  watch  over  him  and 
his  gallant  crew ;  that  their  best  wishes  were  with 
him,  and  that  his  kindness  would  never,  never  be  for- 
gotten. A  trifle  disheartened,  Captain  Perez  never- 
theless resumed  the  fight  on  the  next  day,  and  again 
on  the  fourth  day,  and  after  the  usual  exchange  of 
courtesies  at  evening,  he  told  the  privateer  on  the 
fifth  day  that  he  would  encounter  with  him  as  usual. 
The  persistence  of  the  Spaniard  in  thus  holding  out 
against  seeming  odds — for  the  Frenchman  had  the 
larger  crew — set  the  privateer  to  thinking,  and  a 
sudden  fear  arose  within  him  that  Spanish  reinforce- 
ments were  on  their  way,  and  that  Perez  was  merely 
fighting  for  time  until  they  should  arrive.  This  fear 
grew  until  it  became  belief,  though  a  baseless  one, 
and,  hoisting  sail  as  quietly  as  possible,  he  stole  out 
of  Santiago  Bay  on  the  fourth  night  after  hostilities 
had  opened.  As  thanks  are  cheap,  Perez  received 
a  good  many  of  them. 


152 


In  the  Caribbean 

WHY   KING    CONGO    WAS   LATE 

AS  in  all  the  Spanish  Americas,  there  were 
churchly  feasts  and  celebrations  in  Cuba 
whose  origin  has  been  forgot.  Why  did  the  slaves 
serenade  their  masters  on  New  Year  morning, 
jingling  huge  tambourines,  and  in  the  villages  how 
came  it  to  be  thought  that  the  cause  of  righteousness 
was  advanced  by  parades  and  music  on  saints'  days  ? 
Hatred  of  the  Jews  was  an  inheritance  rather  than 
an  experience,  and  for  lack  of  Jews  to  prove  it  upon 
there  was  an  annual  display  of  wrath  at  Judas,  who 
was  represented  by  a  grotesque  effigy  made  up  of 
straw,  old  clothes,  and  a  mask.  In  the  cities  this 
figure  was  merely  called  The  Jew,  and  after  being 
carried  through  the  streets  with  revilings,  on  the  day 
after  Good  Friday,  it  was  hanged  in  some  conspic- 
uous place  and  there  stoned  and  shot  by  the  crowd. 
In  Santiago  there  used  to  be  a  queer  celebration  on 
the  6th  of  January,  "  the  day  of  the  kings,"  or  "  All 
Kings'  day,"  meaning  the  kings  who  journeyed  to 
Bethlehem  to  worship  the  new-born  Christ.  In 
time  this  function  lost  its  dignity  and  became  a 
sport,  a  gasconade,  in  which  the  slaves  attired  them- 
selves extravagantly  and  paraded  about,  begging, 
blowing  horns,  beating  drums,  and  bandying  jokes 
with  the  spectators.  In  the  days  of  King  Congo 
the  procession  had  some  claim  to  show  and  impor- 
tance, if  only  because  he  was  at  the  head  of  it,  for 
he  had,  in  ways  known  only  to  himself,  come  into 
153 


Myths  and  Legends 

possession  of  the  chapeau  of  a  captain-general,  a 
lieutenant's  coat,  one  epaulette,  a  pair  of  blue 
breeches,  and  a  belt ;  hence,  attired  in  all  these 
grandeurs  at  once,  and  mounted  on  a  mule,  he 
looked  every  inch  the  king  he  said  he  was.  For, 
albeit,  he  had  been  a  slave,  he  claimed  an  African 
king  as  his  father,  and  as  that  parent  was  dead,  for 
aught  he  could  certify  to  the  contrary,  the  title,  if 
not  the  crown  and  emoluments,  descended  to  him  ; 
leastwise,  nobody  on  this  side  of  the  sea  could  dis- 
pute it;  and  he  bore  it  with  conscious  dignity.  His 
family  name,  if  he  had  one,  has  been  lost,  and  it  is 
as  King  Congo  that  he  was  known.  That  his  roy- 
alty was  genuine  the  other  negroes  never  doubted, 
and  to  parade  on  the  day  of  the  kings  without  a  real 
king  of  their  own  color  to  marshal  the  procession 
was  not  to  be  thought  of. 

El  Rey  Congo  was  aware  of  his  power  and  of  the 
impression  he  made  on  the  humbler  residents  of 
Santiago.  Every  now  and  then  he  heightened  his 
superiority  to  common  clay  by  appearing  in  public 
in  a  starched  collar,  looking  over  the  top  of  it  with  an 
assumption  of  pride  and  ease,  as  of  one  born  to  such 
luxury,  but  in  reality  chafing  his  neck  against  its 
ragged  edges  and  longing  to  be  in  the  fields,  where 
he  would  not  need  to  be  spectacular.  One  year  the 
day  of  the  kings  dawned  without  a  cloud,  and 
Santiago  was  in  a  holiday  humor.  Everybody  who 
had  work  to  do  postponed  it  till  to-morrow,  as  if 
All  Kings'  Day  were  like  every  other  day ;  for  the 
154 


In  the  Caribbean 

procession  that  year  was  to  be  extra  large  and  fine. 
King  Congo  was  to  ride  with  spurs,  though  bare- 
footed, and  was  to  have  a  military  guard  of  four 
men.  The  band  had  been  increased,  especially  in 
the  drum  department,  and  the  ladies,  who  would 
have  figured  in  the  king's  court  if  he  had  had  a 
court,  were  turbaned  in  new  bandanas  of  red  and 
yellow.  The  clergy  and  officers  of  the  garrison 
had  promised  to  review  the  parade,  and  the  cooper, 
down  by  the  custom-house,  suggested  that  he'd 
better  put  a  few  hoops  around  King  Congo  to  keep 
his  swelling  heart  from  cracking  his  ribs. 

A  long  trumpet-call  from  the  square  announced 
the  hour  for  assembly,  and  all  eyes  turned  toward 
the  street  through  which  the  king  had  been  used  to 
make  his  entry.  He  did  not  come.  Tardiness  is  a 
privilege  of  kings.  It  proves  them  superior  to  the 
obligations  laid  upon  the  vulgar  herd.  Beside,  what 
is  an  hour  in  a  manana  country  ?  But  as  the  hour 
went  by  and  the  king  kept  refraining  from  his  ar- 
rival, some  presuming  subjects  went  to  look  him  up, 
and  after  much  inquiry  and  pedestrian  exercise  they 
found  the  sovereign  in  jail.  His  Majesty  explained 
that  he  had  been  arrested  for  debt  a  few  days  before, 
and  that  because  of  a  shortage  in  the  paltry  coin  of 
a  white  man's  state — a  wretched  matter  of  $4.15 — 
he  was  doomed  to  remain  behind  the  bars,  perhaps 
forever.  The  messengers  ran  back  to  the  square, 
made  an  excited  appeal  to  the  populace,  scratched 
the  required  sum  together  in  penny  subscriptions, 
155 


Myths  and  Legends 

paid  the  innkeeper  every  centavo  that  the  king 
owed  him,  woke  up  the  sheriff  and  the  magistrate, 
and  before  noon  King  Congo  was  a  free  man,  in  the 
same  old  uniform,  riding  the  same  old  mule,  and 
stiffly  bowing  to  the  admiring  populace  as  he  passed. 
The  parade  was  a  great  success.  So  was  the 
scheme  conceived  that  morning  by  el  Rey  Congo ; 
for,  every  year  thereafter,  three  or  four  days  be- 
fore the  festival  of  the  adoration,  he  laid  in  supplies 
of  rum  and  cigars,  with  even  a  new  hat  or  a  second- 
hand medal,  and  after  getting  the  goods  safely  be- 
stowed in  his  cabin,  defied  his  creditors  to  collect 
their  pay.  The  shopkeepers  winked  at  this  device, 
and  regularly  sent  him  to  jail,  for  they  knew  that  on 
the  6th  of  January  their  royal  customer  would  pay, 
though  by  proxy.  And  that  is  more  than  you  can 
say  of  some  kings.  Isn't  it  ? 

THE   CHASE   OF   TAITO    PERICO 

IN  1779  the  Bishop  of  Havana  took  into  his 
household  as  servants,  and  into  the  cathedral  as 
altar-boys,  three  harum-scarum  Indians,  then  said  to 
have  come  from  Florida,  now  believed  to  have  been 
of  Mexican  origin,  though  there  were  not  wanting 
citizens  who  solemnly  declared  that  the  trio  had 
come  from  a  warmer  place  than  any  on  the  surface 
of  this  planet.  The  object  in  the  bishop's  mind 
was  to  Christianize  the  scapegraces  and  turn  them 
loose  among  their  own  people,  that  they,  too,  might 
156 


In  the  Caribbean 

be  made  to  see  the  light.  The  poor  old  clergyman 
little  knew  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  When  the 
astonishment  of  the  youngsters  at  the  glories  of 
Havana  had  subsided,  and  even  a  regiment  with  a 
band  could  parade  without  their  company,  the  In- 
dian in  them  asserted  itself  once  more,  and  they 
grieved  the  bishop  by  playing  hookey,  shirking  mass, 
running  off  to  the  mountains  on  hunting  trips, 
and  once,  when  he  went  out  in  his  night-cap  10 
inquire  the  cause  of  a  rumpus  in  his  yard,  they 
tripped  him  up  and  circled  around  and  around, 
whooping  like  demons  while  he  was  trying  to  regain 
his  feet  and  apply  his  cane. 

At  last  they  upset,  not  the  clergy  but  the  laws. 
Their  offence  was  not  grave,  being  rather  a  result  of 
high  spirits  than  of  malice,  but  it  brought  the  con- 
stabulary upon  them  and  they  were  carried  to  the 
arsenal  to  work  out  the  term  of  their  imprisonment 
at  loading  ships  and  other  heavy,  uncongenial  labor. 
Not  many  days  had  passed  here  before  a  chance 
offered  for  their  escape,  and  they  seized  upon  it, 
vanishing  under  the  noses  of  the  guard — at  least, 
that  was  the  way  the  guard  reported  it — like  shad- 
ows before  the  sun.  In  fact,  from  that  hour  they 
were  looked  upon  as  a  bit  uncanny.  The  three 
lads  found  a  hiding-place  in  the  Falaco  vegas,  among 
a  vagrom  populace  of  brigands,  runaway  slaves, 
and  wreckers,  and  there  for  several  weeks  they  sup- 
ported themselves  by  hunting,  fishing,  gambling, 
even  working  a  little  when  sore  pressed.  Better  if 
157 


Myths  and  Legends 

they  had  been  left  alone  to  live  out  their  lives  there. 
If  useless,  they  at  least  were  harmless.  But,  no ; 
the  majesty  of  the  law  again  asserted  itself.  They 
were  caught  by  a  company  of  soldiers  and  marched 
back  to  Havana.  Their  protector  and  friend,  the 
bishop,  was  dead.  Again  they  were  laden  with 
chains  and  returned  to  the  arsenal  to  work  out  some 
months  of  penal  servitude.  Their  natures  seemed 
to  change  in  a  day.  To  them  Spaniards  and  Cubans 
now  stood  for  tyranny  and  injustice.  They  did  not 
understand  their  imprisonment  as  a  correction :  it 
was  an  act  of  oppression,  and  how  were  they  to 
know  that  it  would  not  last  for  the  remainder  of 
their  lives  ?  Every  waking  moment  from  the  time 
of  their  second  arrest  they  gave  to  plots  for  liberty 
and  vengeance.  The  escape  came  presently.  It 
seemed  as  if  walls  and  bars  were  not  made  that 
could  restrain  them. 

Two  days  after  this  last  escape  the  country-side 
was  stirred  with  horror,  for  just  before  dawn  a 
hamlet  near  Guanes  was  burned,  and  when  the 
neighbors,  attracted  by  the  flame  and  smoke  seen 
above  the  tree-tops,  arrived  on  the  ground  they 
found  the  gashed  bodies  of  the  inhabitants  lying 
about  on  the  gore-sodden  earth.  The  quickness, 
the  secrecy  of  the  act  were  terrifying.  All  sorts  of 
fantastic  reports  were  spread  about  the  province, 
especially  after  the  massacre  and  the  burning  had 
been  repeated  in  a  second  village — and  a  third — and 
a  fourth.  The  vega  was  in  a  panic.  The  people 
158 


In  the  Caribbean 

went  from  place  to  place  only  in  armed  bands.  The 
Vuelta  Abajo  was  completely  cowed,  and  sentries 
patrolled  every  settlement.  It  was  reported  that 
the  murders  had  been  committed  by  three  giants 
who  cut  down  men,  horses,  and  cattle  as  they 
stalked  across  the  country,  and  whose  weapons  were 
charmed,  so  that  they  always  struck  a  vital  spot,  no 
matter  how  carelessly  they  were  aimed.  The  three 
monsters  were  of  vast  strength  and  horrible  counte- 
nance ;  they  climbed  tall  cliffs  as  cats  climb  fences, 
and  leaped  chasms  fifty  feet  across  as  other  men  skip 
over  gutters. 

A  cave  near  Cape  San  Antonio  that  the  aborigines 
had  chambered  for  tombs  was  their  reputed  hiding- 
place,  where  they  also  worshipped  their  master, 
Satan,  with  fantastic  ceremonies,  and  sacrificed  in  his 
honor  the  best  of  the  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  they 
captured  on  their  raids.  And  the  utter  helplessness 
of  the  Spanish  authorities  gave  a  certain  color  to 
these  rumors,  for  the  giants  snapped  their  fingers  at 
their  pursuers  and  went  on  killing,  looting,  burning, 
running  off  stock,  always  appearing  in  unexpected 
places  and  disappearing  like  mists  at  sunrise.  Thus, 
two  and  a  half  years  went  by,  and  the  offer  of  five 
thousand  dollars  each  for  the  heads  of  the  devil- 
brigands  had  come  to  nothing.  Finally  the  Havana 
authorities  were  prayed  and  pestered  into  a  spell  of 
activity.  They  organized  a  troop  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men  and  sixty  dogs,  put  twenty  officers 
at  the  head,  and  sent  along  four  chaplains  to  pray 
159 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  evil  charms  away.  The  three  savages  were  cor- 
nered on  a  mountain,  where  two  of  them  were  killed 
after  they  had  inflicted  many  hurts  on  their  pur- 
suers. The  heads  of  these  two  were  lopped,  for- 
warded to  the  capital,  and  every  one  supposed  that 
the  reign  of  terror  was  at  an  end. 

But,  as  if  the  strength  of  the  slain  ones  had  passed 
into  his  arm,  the  third  man,  Taito  Perico,  who  had 
escaped  during  the  fight,  became  a  greater  scourge 
than  ever.  He  was  fury  incarnate,  and  so  sudden 
were  his  visitations,  so  quick  and  deadly  his  work, 
so  complete  his  disappearances,  that  more  than  ever 
it  was  believed  he  was  a  fiend.  He  resumed  the 
work  of  slaughter  in  the  Vuelta  Arriba.  He  had  a 
horse  now,  carried  a  huge  lance,  and  killed  or 
wounded  almost  every  one  he  met, — but  not  all. 
There  was  in  this  black  heart  a  core  of  sympathy. 
Once  he  stole  a  little  child  and  kept  her  with  him 
for  some  time,  lavishing  on  her  the  affection  of  a 
barbarian  big  brother,  and  so  endearing  him  to  her 
that  when  she  was  rescued  from  his  jungle  haunt, 
while  he  was  absent  hunting,  she  wept  for  the  kind 
Taito  Perico,  even  in  her  parents'  arms.  Then  he 
stole  a  boy  of  eight  years  and  kept  him  for  some 
months,  allowing  him  at  the  end  of  that  time  to 
return  unharmed  to  his  parents. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  abductions  that  he  worked 

his  own  undoing.     Near  St.  John  of  the  Remedies 

lived   the   pretty  Anita  de   Pareira,  daughter  of  a 

frugal  and  worthy  couple  and  fiancee  of  a  prosperous 

1 60 


In  the  Caribbean 

planter  of  the  district.  The  time  for  the  wedding 
having  been  set,  the  father  and  mother  were  in  their 
little  garden  discussing  ways  and  means,  and  Anita 
was  indoors  trimming  the  gown  in  which  she  was 
to  walk  to  the  altar.  Her  head  was  full  of  pretty 
fancies,  and  she  hummed  softly  to  herself  as  she 
plied  her  needle  or  gazed  into  the  distance,  smiling 
at  the  pictures  created  by  her  own  fancy.  She  was 
rudely  awakened  from  these  pleasing  reveries.  The 
door  was  burst  in  by  a  tremendous  blow  with  a  fist 
and  there  stood  glaring  upon  her  a  Caliban  with 
mighty  neck  and  shoulders,  great  goggling  eyes,  a 
hooked  nose,  a  bush  of  coarse  hair  erect  upon  his 
head,  and  a  stout  lance  in  his  hand.  As  this  crea- 
ture advanced  into  the  room  with  extended  arms 
she  swooned  and  did  not  regain  her  senses  until  she 
had  been  carried  for  a  mile  or  more  from  her  home. 
She  found  herself  lying  across  the  back  of  a  horse 
that  was  galloping  furiously  toward  the  hills  with  the 
savage  in  the  saddle  behind  her. 

The  father  and  mother  ran  into  the  road  toss- 
ing their  hands  in  despair ;  a  dozen  belated  rescuers 
hurried  to  them,  each  arrival  adding  his  screams 
to  the  hubbub ;  then  each  advising  the  rest  what 
should  be  done,  and  nobody  doing  anything.  The 
young  planter,  Anita's  betrothed,  was  quickly  on  the 
ground,  and  he  alone  was  resolute  and  cool.  He 
gathered  the  bolder  men  about  him,  saw  that  they 
were  supplied  with  proper  arms  and  mounts,  and 
with  encouraging  words  to  those  who  were  left 
xi  161 


Myths  and  Legends 

behind,  he  rode  away  on  the  outlaw's  trail.  Over 
pastures,  through  ravines,  across  rivers,  under  for- 
est arches  dim  as  twilight,  they  hurried  on,  a  pack 
of  hounds  yapping  in  advance,  a  broken  branch, 
a  trampled  bush,  a  hoof-print  in  the  margin  of  a 
stream  also  giving  proof  that  they  were  on  the  right 
path ;  a  herder,  who  had  seen  the  ruffian  pass,  like- 
wise testifying  to  the  fact,  and  giving  his  service  to 
the  company  ;  and  so  they  came  to  a  clearing,  where 
they  found  the  marauder's  abandoned  and  exhausted 
horse. 

Putting  their  own  horses  under  guard  of  negroes, 
twenty  of  the  men  pressed  on  afoot  through  tangled 
vines  and  thorny  bushes,  still  led  by  the  dogs,  until 
they  brought  up  at  the  bottom  of  a  tall  cliff,  and  here 
the  hounds  seemed  to  be  at  fault,  for  they  ran  around 
and  around  a  tree,  looking  up  into  it  and  whining. 
The  herder  swung  himself  into  the  branches  and 
scrambled  almost  to  the  top.  "  Nobody  here,"  he 
called.  Then,  when  he  had  partly  descended,  they 
heard  him  utter  an  exclamation  of  surprise.  He 
crept  to  the  end  of  a  long  branch  and  swung  lightly 
to  a  shelf  on  the  face  of  the  crag.  "  Footsteps  !" 
he  exclaimed,  in  a  low,  strained  voice,  and  pointed 
to  a  thin  turf  that  covered  the  jut  of  rock.  The 
dogs  were  right.  Taito  Perico  had  climbed  the 
tree  and  scaled  the  cliff.  The  dogs  were  hoisted  by 
means  of  a  lariat,  the  men  gained  the  shelf,  and 
clambering  along  in  single  file  they  presently  reached 
the  summit.  A  furious  barking  led  them  on ;  then 
162 


In  the  Caribbean 

those  in  the  rear  heard  a  shout.  The  savage  was 
seen,  half  a  mile  away,  crossing  an  opening  at  a  run 
and  striking  at  the  dogs  that  leaped  and  yelped 
around  him.  Leaving  his  companions  to  follow  the 
Indian,  the  lover  devoted  himself  to  the  search  for 
Anita,  and  presently  found  her  at  the  foot  of  a  tree, 
bound,  gagged,  but  safe  and  thankful. 

For  several  days  and  nights  the  chase  went  on  and 
on  with  reinforcements,  and  the  Indian  was  at  last 
overtaken  on  the  mountain  that,  in  memory  of  the 
event,  bears  the  name  of  Loma  del  Indio,  where  he 
was  slain,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  whole  island. 
Even  in  death  his  aspect  was  so  terrific  that  the 
people  along  the  way  were  set  a-shaking  and  a-pray- 
ing  as  his  body  was  carried  on  to  Puerto  Principe. 
Though  he  could  do  harm  no  longer,  the  post- 
mortem punishment  inflicted  on  him  gave  general 
satisfaction ;  for  the  corpse  was  first  hanged,  then 
dragged  at  a  horse's  heels,  then  chopped  apart  and 
buried  in  several  places,  and  the  head,  in  a  cage, 
was  exposed  on  a  pole  in  Tanima.  And  if  three 
men  like  Taito  Perico  could  terrorize  all  Cuba,  a 
hundred  of  such  would  have  freed  it. 


THE   VOICE   IN   THE   INN 

"  "V  T  O  trifling,  senor.     Speak  up  plainly  and  say 
1  >l       what  you  heard."      The  prosecuting  at- 
torney gave  a  nervous  twitch  at  his  pointed  beard, 
a  habit  peculiar  to  him,  and  leaned  a  little  toward 
163 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  witness.  The  elder  judge  blinked  drowsily, 
straightened  in  his  chair,  then  turned  and  looked  at 
the  crucifix  on  the  wall,  for  when  the  sun  touched 
the  bloody  figure  on  the  cross  it  was  time  for  lunch. 
It  was  still  in  shadow.  He  sighed.  His  associates 
of  the  tribunal  were  duly  attent. 

"  I'm  afraid  you  will  not  believe  me,"  objected 
the  witness. 

"  Never  mind  your  fears.  Come,  now :  You 
were  passing  the  deserted  inn  on  the  Minas  road, 
you  say,  when  you  heard  a  voice.  The  voice  of 
one  of  the  brigands  ?" 

"  I  hardly  think  so,  sefior." 

"  How  ?     You  charge  this  defendant  here " 

"  With  attempted  robbery.  Yes,  senor  attorney. 
But  it  was  not  his  voice  that  spoke.  I  think  worse 
mischief  has  been  done  near  the  inn." 

"Worse  mischief?" 

"  Truly.  For  when  this  thief  heard  the  words 
he  let  his  pistol  fall  and  dropped  the  bridle  of  my 
mule.  By  the  moon  I  could  see  his  face  glisten  with 
sweat,  and  it  looked  white." 

"  He  was  afraid,  eh  ?  He  was  a  coward  ?  This 
poor  cheat  of  a  creature  could  not  even  be  a  bri- 
gand ?" 

"  Afraid  !  Any  one  would  be.  As  for  myself,  I 
gave  my  mule  a  cut  and  he  was  off  at  a  lope,  with 
this  fellow  coming  after  as  fast  as  his  legs  could 
carry  him,  until  he  ran  plump  into  the  arms  of  the 
civil  guard." 

164 


In  the  Caribbean 

"  Yes,  yes.  You  have  told  all  that.  But  this 
voice.  You  heard  it  plainly  ?" 

"  Why,  yes,  although  it  sounded  as  if  it  came 
from  a  distance,  or  from  under  a  building,  or — or — 
out  of  a  tomb.  I  couldn't — I  couldn't  help  think- 
ing it  sounded  like  a  man  beneath  a  floor." 

The  attorney  twisted  his  beard  again  impatiently, 
coughed,  then  tightly  folded  his  arms.  He  was 
silent  for  a  little.  Then,  as  if  surprising  himself 
out  of  a  revery,  he  commanded,  "  Well,  well.  Go 
on." 

"  This  voice,  sefior,"  resumed  the  witness,  lean- 
ing forward  and  speaking  mysteriously,  "  it  was  so 
hollow  and  low,  and  spoke  the  words  so  long,  like 
a  creature  dying  and  in  pain,  and  it  gave  me  a 
chill." 

"  Are  you  never  to  tell  us  what  it  said  ?" 

"  It  moaned,  *  For  the  sake  of  the  Virgin,  of  Her 
Blessed  Son,  of  the  Holy  Saint  Peter,  of  the  Good 
God,  pray  for  me.  Pray  for  a  sinner.  Beg  the 
good  fathers  at  Nuevitas  to  say  a  mass  for  the  soul 
of  Enrique  Carillo.'  Then  there  was  a  sort  of 
groan " 

"  My  God !"  It  was  the  prosecutor  who  had 
gasped  the  words. 

"  Yes,  just  like  that.  Ah  !  Pardon,  senor.  I 
did  not  see.  You  are  ill." 

For  the  lawyer's  face  had  become  of  a  deathly 
pallor,  his  head  had  sunk  forward,  his  lips  trembled, 
his  hands  shook  as  they  clutched  the  edge  of  the 
165 


Myths  and  Legends 

table  behind  him.  The  idlers  in  the  back  of  the 
room  were  awake  in  a  moment.  The  sun  touched 
the  figure  of  Christ,  splashed  with  blood  in  the 
fashion  of  the  official  crucifix,  and  it  seemed  to 
look  down  on  the  scene  below  as  in  torture.  The 
prisoner's  counsel  sprang  forward,  placed  a  chair  for 
his  opponent  and  helped  him  to  be  seated.  An 
officer  brought  a  glass  of  water,  which  the  lawyer 
drank  eagerly,  then  sat  as  in  a  daze  for  an  instant, 
shuddered,  passed  his  hands  over  his  face,  and  said, 
"  I  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  court.  I  have  lost  my 
sleep  for  the  last  few  nights.  I — I " 

The  senior  judge  had  half-risen,  his  wig  awry, 
his  hands  gripping  the  arms  of  the  chair.  "  Clear 
the  court !  It  is  the  fever !"  he  cried. 

There  was  a  stampede  of  the  unoccupied  in  the 
back  of  the  room.  The  others  in  the  court  reached 
for  their  hats  and  drew  away,  leaving  the  prosecutor 
alone.  He  smiled  faintly.  "  No,  your  Honor,"  he 
said.  "  It  is  over  now.  It  was  a  touch  of  faint- 
ness  ;  nothing  more." 

"  With  the  consent  of  counsel  I  will  adjourn  the 
case." 

The  face  of  the  prosecutor  hardened ;  he  set  his 
jaw  doggedly,  he  regained  his  feet  with  a  sort  of 
spring.  The  judges  slipped  back  deeper  into  their 
seats ;  the  elder  wiped  his  brow  and  puffed. 

"  We  will  go  on,"  said  the  attorney,  in  a  calmer 
voice.  "  The  testimony  is  practically  exhausted.  I 
have  to  confess  that  1  have  been  somewhat  disap- 
166 


In  the  Caribbean 

pointed  in  the  witnesses,  but  I  submit  the  case  on 
the  evidence  without  argument." 

It  was  plain  that  the  people's  representative  was 
not  at  his  best  that  morning.  The  trial  was  hurried 
on,  the  lawyer  for  the  defence  insisting  principally 
that,  as  the  complainant  had  fled  from  the  scene 
of  the  attempted  robbery  without  looking  back,  he 
could  not  possibly  swear  that  the  man  in  the  pris- 
oner's dock  was  the  one  who  had  held  his  bridle. 
Was  it  not  at  least  probable  that  the  accused  had 
told  the  truth  when  he  said  he  had  been  roused  by 
the  outcry  of  the  man  on  mule-back  and  had  run 
down  the  road  to  see  what  the  matter  was  ?  More- 
over, as  no  loss  had  been  suffered,  was  it  not  a 
slender  ground  for  prosecution  ?  The  old  judge 
looked  back  at  the  crucifix.  The  illumination  was 
passing.  The  knees  were  already  in  shadow.  He 
was  an  hour  late  for  his  lunch.  He  whispered 
with  the  other  judges  for  a  moment,  then  smote  the 
desk  before  him.  '*  No  evidence.  The  prisoner  is 
discharged.  Adjourn  the  court,"  he  exclaimed. 
And  for  once  in  the  history  of  Puerto  Principe  the 
law  had  been  prompt.  The  accused,  who  had  been 
stolid  and  dull  throughout  the  trial,  now  smiled  cun- 
ningly to  himself,  and  saying  no  word  to  any  one, 
but  with  a  sidelong  look  at  the  lawyers,  left  the 
building  without  loss  of  time,  and  after  investing  a 
few  coppers  in  bad  brandy  at  the  least  inviting  grog- 
gery  in  town,  disappeared  down  the  road  leading  to- 
ward Minas.  There  were  several  anxious  inquiries 
167 


Myths  and  Legends 

at  the  house  of  Prosecutor  Ramirez  that  evening, 
but  he  was  in  his  usual  health.  There  was  no  occa- 
sion for  alarm  as  to  the  fever. 

Two  nights  after  this  a  couple  of  planters  were 
stopped  near  the  old  inn  by  a  man  of  rough  appear- 
ance, whose  face  was  masked,  and  were  forced  at  the 
pistol's  point  to  give  up  their  watches  and  money. 
A  few  nights  later  a  man  left  town  with  money  to 
discharge  a  bill.  He  never  reached  his  destina- 
tion. In  each  case  the  criminals  left  no  trace.  The 
environs  of  Puerto  Principe  were  growing  in  ill- 
repute. 

The  prosecutor  was  leaving  home  on  an  evening 
when  rain  seemed  threatening.  This  was  probably 
his  reason  for  wearing  a  cloak, — a  protection  seldom 
needed,  except  at  night  and  in  bad  weather.  It  was 
against  his  usual  habit  that  he  had  drawn  his  cloak 
high  about  his  shoulders,  so  that  his  face  was  half- 
concealed,  and  this  made  it  the  more  difficult  for  one 
who  was  following  to  know  if  he  were,  or  were 
not,  the  man  he  sought.  Convinced,  after  a  little, 
that  he  was,  he  hurried  forward  and  placed  his  hand 
on  his  arm.  The  lawyer  started  and  uttered  an  ex- 
clamation. "  Are  you  not  Don  Pablo  Ramirez " 
asked  the  unknown. 

The  prosecutor  looked  long  and  searchingly  at 
the  frank-faced  stranger,  then  answered,  shortly,  "  I 
am  he." 

"  I  thought  so.  Allow  me :  I  am  Captain  Al- 
fonso Garcia  Estufa,  of  the  Engineer  Corps.  I 
168 


In  the  Caribbean 

come  from  Havana  with  authority  from  the  gov- 
ernor-general to  confer  with  you  about  the  brigands 
in  this  province." 

"  Ah,  indeed  !  You  are  welcome,  senor  captain. 
I  was  about  to  make  a  business  call  on  a  tenant  in 
this  street.  May  I  ask  if  you  will  make  my  house 
your  own  till  I  return  ?  I  shall  be  absent  but  a  few 
moments.  I  will  go  back  with  you  and  open  the 
door.  Enter,  if  you  please.  The  sherry  is  on  the 
sideboard.  Cigars  you  will  find  on  the  table.  Call 
my  servant,  if  you  require  anything."  Then,  hur- 
rying out  once  more,  the  lawyer  almost  ran  upon  his 
errand.  In  a  quarter  of  an  hour  he  returned  and 
the  two  began  their  discussion  over  a  decanter  of 
choice  Madeira. 

"  It  still  seems  to  me,"  said  the  young  officer, 
after  the  talk  had  been  going  on  for  some  minutes, 
"  that  the  bold  policy  is  the  better,  though  we  may 
need  secrecy  in  certain  cases,  for  these  devils  of  bri- 
gands smell  powder  a  mile  away.  On  my  life,  they 
do.  I've  dealt  with  them  in  Pinar  del  Rio,  and  they 
tell  me  they  are  more  slippery  and  far- seeing,  or  far- 
smelling,  in  this  province.  They  must  have  con- 
federates here  in  town." 

"  Confederates  ?  Preposterous,  sefior  !  Why  do 
you  think  that  ?" 

"  Oh,  I've  been  investigating  a  little.     Either  the 

brigands  here  are  clever,  or  some  man  who  is  more 

clever  has  them  in  hand,  and  knows  enough  not  to 

mix  with  them, — some  man  who  can  persuade  them, 

169 


Myths  and  Legends 

or  terrorize  them,  or  shield  them.  Have  you  no 
conceit  as  to  who  in  this  city  is  fitted  for  a  chief- 
tainship like  that  ?" 

"I?     None." 

"  I  had  hoped  you  knew  your  fellow-citizens  well 
enough  to  advise  me  whom  to  watch.  No  ?  Then, 
at  least,  tell  me  where  it  would  be  best  to  place  my 
men." 

"  The  trails  toward  Sibanicu." 

"  Trails  ?  Sibanicu  ?  Why,  there's  no  travel  in 
that  quarter.  The  robberies  have  happened  be- 
tween here  and  Minas." 

"  Exactly.  So  many  have  happened  that  the  bri- 
gands must  abandon  it  henceforth.  They  know  they 
are  watched,  and  I'll  warrant  your  coming  here,  and 
the  object  of  it,  are  already  common  talk  among 
them." 

"  Humph !" 

"  People  who  are  bound  for  the  coast  are  begin- 
ning to  go  around  already,  so  as  to  avoid  the  Minas 
road.  If  our  scamps  are  as  clever  as  you  think, 
they  will  not  be  long  in  following." 

"  There  is  something  in  that,  and  I  thank  you 
for  the  hint.  We  will  meet  again  shortly.  Mean- 
while, pray  study  the  situation." 

"  You  are  not  going  ?" 

"  I  cannot  stop  with  you,  senor,  greatly  as  I 
should  be  pleased  to  do  so,  for  I  have  agreed  to  meet 
my  lieutenants  at  the  other  end  of  the  town.  Good- 
night." 

170 


In  the  Caribbean 

"  Good-night,  then,  if  you  will  not  stay.  Tell 
me  early  what  success  you  have  in  the  chase  of  our 
good  citizens  of  Puerto  Principe." 

The  captain  left  the  house  with  a  light  and  jaunty 
step,  yet  he  looked  about  him  thoughtfully.  He 
had  not  gone  far  when  the  night  stillness  was  broken 
by  the  crack  of  a  fire-arm  not  ten  paces  away.  A 
bullet  cut  his  hat.  He  turned  quickly.  Nobody 
was  in  sight.  The  air  was  thick  with  mist,  and 
nobody  was  stirring.  "  Scoundrel !"  cried  the  offi- 
cer, shaking  his  fist  at  the  darkness.  "  You  shall 
pay  dear  for  that — you  and  your  people.  Do  you 
hear  ?" 

There  was  no  answer.  He  walked  on  at  a  faster 
pace. 

Before  the  sun  was  up  next  morning  the  captain 
and  his  men  had  withdrawn  from  Puerto  Principe. 
Few  in  the  town  knew  that  he  had  been  there. 
None  knew  whither  he  had  gone. 

It  was  nine  o'clock  on  the  night  following  the 
interview.  A  fitful  wind  stirred  the  trees  that 
densely  shadowed  the  Minas  road.  From  a  chink 
in  the  walls  of  a  dilapidated  house  that  stood  back 
from  the  highway  a  light  shone  faintly,  but  except 
for  the  sough  of  the  leaves  and  the  whirring  and 
lisping  that  betoken  the  wakefulness  of  insect  life 
there  was  no  sound.  None  ?  What  was  that  ? 
Down  the  road,  from  Nuevitas  way,  came  a  blowing 
and  stamping  of  horses  laboring  through  mud.  The 
crack  of  light  still  shone,  and  nothing  moved  along 
171 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  wayside.  As  the  horses  came  nearer  a  lantern 
could  be  seen  hanging  from  the  sheep-neck  of  the 
older  one,  and  two  voices  could  be  heard  in  talk, — 
such  village  gossip  as  farmers  might  exchange  when 
the  way  was  tiresome.  The  horses  plodded  on  till 
they  were  abreast  of  the  house,  when  there  was  a 
whistle ;  the  crack  of  light  widened,  suddenly  there 
was  a  rush  of  feet,  a  torch  was  brandished,  and 
brown  hands  fell  upon  the  bridles. 

One  of  the  riders  cried  out,  flung  up  his  arms, 
and  begged  for  mercy.  They  might  take  his  mas- 
ter's money,  if  they  would,  but  for  the  sake  of  St. 
Isaac,  St.  Matthew,  and  St.  John,  let  them  spare  his 
life.  The  other  horseman,  tall,  spare,  wrapped  in 
a  cloak,  swung  down  from  his  saddle  in  a  business- 
like way,  addressed  a  remark  in  a  low  tone  to  the 
brigands,  took  the  lantern  from  the  neck  of  his 
neighbor's  nag, — it  was  a  fine,  mettled  black  he  rode 
himself, — turned  up  the  flap  of  his  hat  a  little,  only 
a  little,  not  enough  to  reveal  his  face,  and  proceeded 
to  rifle  the  pockets  and  saddle-bags  of  his  amazed 
companion.  The  lantern  and  the  torch  shone  on 
six  or  eight  as  hang-dog  faces  as  would  be  met  in  a 
day's  journey,  and  among  them  was  one  closely 
resembling  the  prisoner  who  had  been  discharged 
on  a  trial  two  or  three  weeks  before  for  lack  of  evi- 
dence. The  victim  of  this  robbery  having  given  up 
all  he  seemed  to  possess  was  told  to  ride  straight  into 
town  without  word  or  halt,  else  he  would  be  shot, 
and  a  fierce  stroke  being  given  with  the  whip,  his 
172 


In  the  Caribbean 

horse  was  off  at  such  a  gallop  that  he  had  much  ado 
to  keep  his  seat.  The  thieves  heaped  the  saddle- 
bags and  parcels  into  the  middle  of  the  road  and 
bent  near,  while  the  man  in  the  cloak  opened  them 
and  examined  their  contents  in  the  flickering  light. 
A  gust  of  wind  made  the  torch  flare  and  put  the 
lantern  out.  The  cloaked  man  muttered  an  oath, 
and  had  partly  risen  to  his  feet,  when  there  came  a 
sound  that  caused  him  to  stagger  and  hold  his  hands 
to  his  head  as  if  in  mortal  terror.  It  was  a  wailing 
voice,  and  it  pleaded,  "  For  the  sake  of  the  Virgin, 
of  Her  Blessed  Son,  of  the  Holy  Saint  Peter,  of  the 
Good  God,  pray  for  me.  Pray  for  a  sinner.  Beg 
the  good  fathers  at  Nuevitas  to  say  a  mass  for  the 
soul  of  Enrique  Carillo." 

The  cloaked  man  groaned.  The  others  crouched, 
shuddering,  and  their  eyes  in  the  red  torch-flame 
were  the  eyes  of  goblins.  In  another  moment  a 
shock  ran  through  the  group,  for  another  voice, 
clear  and  stern,  commanded,  "  As  you  value  your 
lives,  don't  stir.  Men,  do  not  fire  unless  I  tell 
you." 

A  light  flashed  up,  then  another,  and  the  bandits 
discovered  themselves  in  the  centre  of  a  ring  formed 
by  twenty  men,  with  the  young  captain  in  com- 
mand. Resistance  would  have  been  foolish,  flight 
impossible ;  yet,  as  the  captain  stepped  toward  the 
brigand  leader,  the  man  in  the  cloak  attempted  the 
foolish  and  impossible  ;  he  fired  his  pistol  full  at  the 
captain's  head,  flung  th*  weapon  after  the  bullet, 
1/3 


Myths  and  Legends 

missing  his  aim  each  time,  then  started  to  run,  up- 
setting one  of  the  soldiers  as  he  did  so. 

"  Fire  !"  cried  the  captain. 

Two  musket-shots  came  upon  the  word.  The 
tall  man  tumbled  headlong.  "  It  is  one  the  less  to 
hang,'*  exclaimed  the  officer,  as  he  snatched  a  torch 
from  the  hand  of  one  of  his  men.  He  bent  over 
the  prostrate  form  :  the  robber  had  been  killed  in- 
stantly. He  withdrew  the  cloak  from  the  face  and 
looked  long  without  speaking.  Finally  he  said,  "  I 
was  a  better  ghost  than  I  supposed.  These  brigands 
will  have  to  elect  a  new  leader,  and  Puerto  Principe 
must  have  a  new  prosecuting  attorney." 

In  the  deserted  inn,  under  the  kitchen  floor,  were 
found  the  remains  of  Enrique  Carillo  and  several 
other  victims  of  the  robbers.  And  it  is  said  that  on 
All  Souls'  eve  their  ghosts  block  the  road  and  beg 
all  who  pass  to  pray  for  them  and  to  pay  for  a  few 
masses.  Most  importunate  of  all  is  the  ghost  of 
Pablo  Ramirez. 


jfn 


'75 


$n  t!je  pacific 


FINDING   OF   THE   ISLANDS 

ONE  of  the  oldest  legends  of  the  Hawaiians 
relates  to  the  finding  of  their  islands  by 
Hawaiiloa,  a  great  chief  and  great-grandson  of 
Kinilauamano,  whose  twelve  sons  became  the  foun- 
ders of  twelve  tribes.  Guided  by  the  Pleiades  he 
sailed  westward  from  America,  or  northward  from 
some  other  group, — doubtless  the  latter, — and  so 
came  to  these  pleasant  lands,  to  the  largest  of  which 
he  gave  his  own  name,  while  the  lesser  ones  com- 
memorate his  children.  In  another  tradition  the 
islands  of  Oahu  and  Molokai  were  the  illegitimate 
children  of  two  of  his  descendants,  who  were 
wedded,  but  jealous  of  one  another  and  faithless. 
Still  another  folk-tale  runs  to  the  effect  that  an 
enormous  bird,  at  least  as  large  as  the  American 
thunder-bird  or  the  roc  of  Arabia,  paused  in  its 
flight  across  the  sea  and  laid  an  egg  which  floated 
on  the  water.  The  warmth  of  the  ocean  and  the 
ardor  of  the  sun  hatched  the  egg,  and  from  it  came 
the  islands,  which  grew,  in  time,  to  their  present 
size,  and  ever  increased  in  beauty.  Some  years 
after  they  were  found  by  a  man  and  a  woman  who 

12  177 


Myths  and  Legends 

had  voyaged  from  Kahiki  in  a  canoe,  and  liking  the 
scenery  and  climate,  they  went  ashore  on  the  eastern 
side  of  Hawaii,  and  remained  there  to  become  the 
progenitors  of  the  present  race.  It  suggests  the  ark 
legend  that  this  pair  had  in  their  canoe  two  dogs, 
two  swine,  and  two  fowls,  from  which  animals 
had  come  all  that  were  found  running  wild  there 
a  hundred  years  ago.  The  people  can  never  be 
thankful  enough  that  these  visitors  differed  from 
Nuu  in  their  lack  of  regard  for  the  snakes,  scor- 
pions, centipedes,  tarantulas,  and  mosquitoes  that 
are  so  common  to  tropic  lands,  for,  having  neglected 
to  import  these  afflictions,  the  islands  got  on  with- 
out them  until  recently.  Mosquitoes  were  taken  to 
Hawaii  on  an  American  ship.  The  hogs  and  dogs 
are  descendants  of  animals  that  escaped  from  the 
wreck  of  the  Spanish  galleon  Santo  lago  in  1527. 

ANCIENT   FAITHS   OF   HAWAII 

HAWAIIANS  claim  descent  from  the  Cushites 
of  Arabia,  and  in  their  folk-lore  they  have 
the  same  agreement  with  the  Jewish  myths  which 
we  find  so  strangely  in  other  tribes  that  seem  to 
have  no  relation  to  one  another.  Like  the  Israelites, 
they  believed  in  a  first  pair  that  forfeited  paradise  by 
sinning,  and  were  put  out  of  it.  Like  the  Israelites, 
they  built  temples  and  places  of  worship.  Like  the 
Israelites,  they  practised  circumcision.  Their  priests 
and  chiefs  were  kin  of  the  gods,  and  well  may  they 
178 


In  the  Pacific 

have  seemed  so  if  it  is  true  that  the  kings  of  the 
islands  were  men  whose  height  was  nine  feet,  and 
who  flourished  spears  ten  yards  long.  Even  Kame- 
hameha,  who  died  in  1819,  and  who  was  politically 
the  greatest  of  these  rulers,  as  he  established  one 
government  over  all  of  the  islands,  is  said  to  have 
been  a  giant  in  strength. 

Without  compasses,  guided  only  by  sun  and  stars, 
the  people  made  long  voyages  in  their  canoes — ves- 
sels of  a  length  of  a  hundred  feet — and  did  battle 
with  other  races,  fighting  with  spears,  slings,  clubs, 
axes,  and  knives,  but  not  with  bows  or  armor. 
Doubtless  they  exaggerate  their  numbers  and  their 
heroism,  and  in  the  last  great  battle,  by  which  Kame- 
hameha  became  ruler  of  the  group,  it  may  be  that 
there  were  not  quite  the  sixteen  thousand  men  he 
claimed  to  have  when  he  forced  the  troops  of  Oahu 
over  the  cliff  of  Nuuanu.  The  language  of  Hawaii 
resembles  the  tongues  spoken  in  the  southern  archi- 
pelagoes, thereby  bearing  out  the  legend  of  early 
migrations.  As,  in  the  East,  we  hear  tales  that 
seem  to  hark  back  to  the  lost  Atlantis,  so  among  the 
Pacific  tribes  are  faint  beliefs  in  a  continent  in  the 
greater  ocean  that  sank  thousands  of  years  ago,  and 
of  coral  islands  built  on  its  ruins  that  crumbled  or 
were  shaken  down  in  their  turn,  albeit  they  served 
their  purpose  as  stepping-stones  between  the  sur- 
viving groups. 

The  Columbus  of  Hawaii  was  Nanaula,  a  Poly- 
nesian chief,  who  reached  them  in  the  sixth  cen- 
179 


Myths  and  Legends 

tury,  either  blown  upon  them  by  gales  or  actuated 
in  along  search  by  love  of  adventure.  He  carried 
dogs,  swine,  fowls,  and  seeds  of  food-plants,  and  for 
several  centuries  the  people  increased,  lived  in  com- 
fort, and  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  peace.  Four  hun- 
dred years  later  a  large  emigration  occurred  from 
Samoa  and  the  Society  group  to  these  islands,  and 
the  new-comers  proved  to  be  the  stronger.  Each 
island  had  its  chief  or  chiefs  until  this  century,  but 
their  families  had  intermarried  until  a  veritable  aris- 
tocracy had  been  set  up,  with  a  college  of  heraldry, 
if  you  please,  that  recorded  the  ancestry  brags  of  the 
Four  Hundred.  Captain  Cook  chanced  on  evil 
days  when  his  turn  came  to  discover  the  islands 
again,  for  although  the  people  at  first  thought  him 
to  be  the  god  Lono,  they  were  so  busy  hating  each 
other  that  they  had  not  time  to  extend  as  many 
courtesies  to  him  as  they  might  have  granted  at 
some  other  period.  When  they  killed  him  he  had 
incurred  their  wrath  by  his  overbearing  manner,  his 
contempt  for  their  customs,  and  by  trying  to  make 
prisoner  of  a  chief  who  was  innocently  pulling  one 
of  the  ship's  boats  apart  to  get  the  nails  out.  Juan 
Gaetano,  a  Spanish  captain,  sailing  from  Mexico  to 
the  Spice  Islands  in  1555,  is  said  to  have  discovered 
Hawaii,  but  he  said  little  about  it.  There  are  tra- 
ditions of  other  white  visitors  likewise. 

While    Christian   missionaries    claimed    to    have 
worked  the  moral  regeneration  of  the  islands,  the 
Martin   Luther  of  the  group  anticipated  them  by 
180 


In  the  Pacific 

half  a  year.  Liholiho — that  was  his  name — pub- 
licly kicked  the  idols,  burned  the  temples,  ate  from 
the  dishes  of  women,  and  defied  the  taboo.  So  soon 
as  the  natives  discovered  that  the  sea  did  not  rise  nor 
the  sky  fall,  they  rejoiced  exceeding,  and  when  one 
of  the  priests  gathered  an  army  and  mutinied  against 
the  new  order,  they  vehemently  suppressed  him. 
Yet  the  gods  whom  this  soldier-priest  defended  are 
said  to  lament  his  fall  in  battle,  and  the  south  wind, 
stirring  the  shrubbery  about  his  grave,  is  often  heard 
to  sob.  The  first  missionaries  were  Yankees.  They 
made  some  converts,  acquired  real  estate,  their  ex- 
ample and  teaching  in  political  and  industrial  mat- 
ters were  profitably  heeded,  and  peace  and  pros- 
perity returned  to  the  islands.  Catholic  missionaries 
were  forbidden  by  the  government  to  land  until 
1839,  when  they  were  put  ashore  under  the  guns 
of  a  French  man-of-war,  and  have  remained  in  safety 
ever  since. 

The  religious  faith  that  white  men  drove  from 
Hawaii,  or  think  they  did,  is  based  on  the  customary 
moral  precepts,  while  the  theogeny  comprehends  a 
trinity,  composed  of  Kane,  who  plans  and  who  lives 
in  the  east ;  Ku,  who  builds,  and  Lono,  who  directs. 
These  three  gods  in  one,  who  had  existed  from  the 
beginning,  created  light ;  next  they  built  the  three 
heavens ;  they  then  made  the  earth,  sun,  moon,  and 
stars.  The  angels  were  spat  from  their  mouths, 
and  after  the  fruitless  or  experimental  creation  of 
Welahilana  and  Owe,  the  chief  god,  Kane,  with  his 
181 


Myths  and  Legends 

saliva,  mixed  with  red  earth,  made  the  first  man, 
Kumuhonua,  and  from  his  rib  took  the  first  woman, 
Keolakuhonua.  These  parents  of  the  race  were  put 
into  a  beautiful  garden,  divided  by  three  rivers  that 
had  their  source  in  a  lake  of  living  water,  which 
would  bring  the  dead  to  life  when  sprinkled  over 
them,  and  which  was  filled  with  fish  that  fire  could 
not  destroy.  This  living  water  was  found  again, 
ages  after,  by  Kamapikai,  who  led  some  of  the  Ha- 
waiians  back  to  it  that  they  might  bathe,  and  they 
emerged  young,  strong,  and  handsome;  but  from 
their  third  voyage  to  the  lake  they  never  returned. 
In  the  garden  stood  a  bread-fruit  tree  and  an  apple 
tree,  both  taboo.  Whether  Kanaloa,  the  rebellious 
angel,  persuaded  the  first  pair  to  pluck  the  forbidden 
fruit,  or  whether  he  wrought  their  downfall  in  some 
other  fashion,  we  do  not  know ;  but  he  was  angry 
because  they  refused  to  worship  him,  and  because 
the  man  whom  he  had  created  could  neither  rise 
nor  speak ;  so,  in  the  form  of  a  lizard,  he  went  into 
the  garden  and  beguiled  the  pair.  Kane  sent  a  large 
white  bird  and  drove  them  out.  Of  the  three  sons 
of  the  parents  of  the  race  the  elder  slew  the  second, 
and  in  the  thirteenth  generation  came  the  deluge, 
from  which  Nuu  was  saved,  for  at  the  command  of 
Kane  he  built  an  ark,  took  refuge  in  it  with  his 
family,  and,  with  pairs  of  every  species  of  bird,  beast, 
and  reptile,  was  released  by  the  gods  after  the  water 
had  gone  down,  and  found  that  his  ark  was  resting 
on  the  top  of  Mauna  Loa.  The  rainbow  was  the 
182 


In  the  Pacific 

stair  by  which  Kane  descended  to  him,  and  it  was 
left  in  the  sky  as  a  token  of  forgiveness.  As  the 
history  proceeds  we  recognize  the  story  of  Abraham, 
and  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren,  and  the  likeness  to 
the  Bible  narrative  ceases  after  an  account  of  the 
long  wanderings  and  troubles  of  the  people  in  their 
search  for  the  land  set  apart  for  them  by  Kane, — a 
search  in  which  they  were  led  by  two  brothers. 

It  was  only  in  the  eleventh  century  that  the 
priesthood  became  a  power,  exalted  itself  above  the 
kings,  prescribed  senseless  ceremonials  and  forms  of 
worship,  invented  so  many  gods  that  they  often  for- 
got the  names  of  them,  and  devised  the  prohibition, 
or  taboo,  the  meaning  of  that  word  being  "  Obey 
or  die."  Among  these  gods  none  are  more  curious 
than  the  stones  of  Kaloa  beach,  Ninole,  Hawaii. 
The  natives,  who  believed  that  they  had  sex,  and 
propagated,  chose  male  specimens  for  their  house- 
hold deities.  In  order  to  make  sure  whether  or  not 
they  were  really  gods,  the  stones  were  blessed  in  a 
temple,  wrapped  in  a  dress,  and  taken  to  see  a  game 
of  skill  or  strength.  If  the  owner  of  the  god  won 
he  gave  to  the  piece  of  stone  the  credit  for  his  vic- 
tory and  established  it  in  his  house ;  but  if  he  lost, 
the  stone  was  thrown  aside.  If  the  believer  wanted 
to  make  sure  of  finding  a  god  he  would  take  a  beach 
pebble  of  each  sex,  wrap  the  two  in  cloth,  and  put 
them  away  for  a  time.  When  they  were  brought 
back  to  the  light  a  smaller  pebble,  the  result  of  their 
union,  was  found  with  them.  This  grew,  like  an 
183 


Myths  and  Legends 

animal,  until  it  was  of  a  size  to  be  blessed  by  the 
priests  and  formally  declared  to  be  a  god.  The 
original  pebbles  are  of  black  trap,  compact  lava,  and 
white  coral.  Beside  the  gods  there  were  spirits  that 
could  be  called  from  the  grave  by  wizards,  although 
this  power  rested  only  with  the  strongest  and  most 
righteous  of  the  class.  The  soul  of  a  living  creature 
might  also  leave  his  body  and  exhibit  itself  to  one 
at  a  distance,  as  Margrave  projected  his  luminous 
apparition  in  Bulwer's  "  Strange  Story." 

It  was  the  gods  of  the  second  rank,  however,  that 
seemed  most  busy  for  good  or  mischief  in  human 
affairs :  such  gods  as  Pele,  the  spirit  of  the  volca- 
noes, with  her  five  brothers  and  eight  sisters  who 
lived  in  the  flaming  caverns  of  Kilauea  ;  or  as  Kalai- 
pahoa,  poison-goddess  of  Molokai,  and  her  two  sis- 
ters, who  put  a  bane  on  the  trees  so  deadly  that  they 
rivalled  the  fabled  Upas  of  Java,  and  birds  fell  life- 
less as  they  attempted  to  fly  above  them  (a  volcanic 
sulphur  vent  was  probably  the  origin  of  this  tale)  ; 
or,  as  Kuahana,  who  slew  men  for  sport ;  or,  as 
Pohakaa,  who  rolled  rocks  down  the  mountains  to 
scare  and  hurt  travellers ;  or,  as  the  shark  and  lizard 
gods  that  lashed  the  sea  into  storms  and  wrecked 
canoes.  War  gods  of  wood  were  carried  in  battle, 
among  them  the  fierce-looking  image  of  Kalaipahoa, 
born  in  the  van  of  the  army  of  Kamehameha,  and 
made  at  a  cost  of  many  lives  from  one  of  the  trees 
poisoned  by  that  goddess.  Its  fragments  were  di- 
vided among  his  people  after  the  king's  death. 


In  the  Pacific 

Apropos  of  this  figure,  a  gamester  had  lost  every- 
thing except  a  pig,  which  he  did  not  dare  to 
stake,  as  it  had  been  claimed  for  a  sacrifice  by  a 
priest  with  a  porkly  appetite.  At  the  command  of 
a  deity,  however,  who  appeared  in  his  dreams,  he 
disregarded  the  taboo  and  wagered  the  pig  next  day. 
Being  successful  in  his  play,  he  in  thankfulness  of- 
fered half  of  his  gains  to  the  deity.  This  god  ap- 
peared on  a  second  night  and  told  him  that  if  the 
king  would  make  an  idol  of  a  certain  wood  growing 
near  she  would  breathe  power  into  it,  and  would 
make  the  gambler  her  priest.  So  the  king  ordered 
a  tree  to  be  cut.  As  the  chips  flew  into  the  faces 
of  the  choppers  they  fell  dead.  Others,  covering 
their  bodies  with  cloth  and  their  faces  with  leaves, 
managed  to  hew  off  a  piece  as  large  as  a  child's 
body,  and  from  this  the  statue  was  carved  with 
daggers,  held  at  arm's-length ;  and  Kalaipahoa 
means  Dagger-cut.  Another  god  of  the  great  king 
was  Kaili,  which  was  of  wood  with  a  head-dress 
of  yellow  feathers.  This  image  uttered  yells  of 
encouragement  that  could  be  heard  above  the  din  of 
conflict. 

Statues  of  the  gods  were  kept  in  walled  enclos- 
ures, sometimes  four  or  five  acres  in  extent,  within 
which  stood  the  temples  and  altars  of  sacrifice,  and 
there  the  people  read  the  fates,  as  did  the  Greek  and 
Roman  soothsayers,  in  the  shapes  of  clouds  and  the 
forms  and  colors  of  entrails  of  birds  or  of  pigs 
killed  on  the  altars.  Human  sacrifices  were  offered 
185 


Myths  and  Legends 

on  important  occasions,  but  always  of  men, — never 
of  women  or  children.  If  no  criminals  or  pris- 
oners were  available,  the  first  gardener  or  fisherman 
was  captured,  knocked  on  the  head,  and  his  body 
left  to  decay  on  the  altar.  Oil  and  holy  water  were 
used  to  anoint  the  altar  and  sacred  objects,  and  when 
a  temple  was  newly  finished  its  altar  was  piled  with 
the  dead.  There  is  a  striking  universality  among 
people  in  the  brutal  stage  of  development  in  this 
practice  of  pacifying  their  deities  by  murder.  When 
a  king  or  high  priest  offered  a  sacrifice  of  a  foeman 
the  butcher  gouged  the  left  eye  from  the  body  and 
gave  it  to  his  superior,  who  pretended  to  eat  it.  If 
a  victim  succeeded  in  escaping  to  a  temple  of  refuge 
he  was  safe,  even  though  he  had  killed  a  king  or 
slapped  the  chops  of  a  wooden  god. 

All  over  the  islands  are  natural  monuments  asso- 
ciated with  instances  that  prove  the  faith  of  the 
people  in  gods,  fiends,  spirits.,  and  heroes.  At  Mana 
Beach  the  "  barking"  or  whistling  of  the  sands 
under  the  tread  is  held  to  be  the  wailing  of  buried 
Hawaiians,  complaining  that  they  are  disturbed. 
Here,  too,  dwells  the  ghost  of  the  giant  Kamali- 
maloa,  rising  through  the  earth  with  spear  and 
helmet  at  certain  seasons  and  seeking  two  beautiful 
girls  who  scorned  him  in  life,  and  whom  he  is 
doomed  never  to  meet  in  death.  Holes  and  caves 
that  abound  in  the  lava — old  craters,  bubbles,  and 
steam-vents — also  have  their  stories.  On  Kauai 
they  show  a  series  called  Pele's  Jumps,  because 
186 


In  the  Pacific 

when  the  fire-goddess  was  driven  from  that  island 
by  the  water-gods  she  made  three  long  steps  in  the 
soft  crust  before  undertaking  the  final  leap  that 
landed  her  on  the  slope  of  Kilauea.  Each  of  these 
pits  would  hold  a  hotel.  Another  chasm  was  made 
by  pulling  a  monster  turtle  out  of  his  lair,  while  he 
slept,  with  the  intent  of  eating  him.  This  pit  is  thou- 
sands of  cubic  yards  in  extent,  and  the  turtle  may  be 
seen  on  a  neighboring  mountain,  turned  to  stone  by 
the  curses  of  the  chief  from  whom  he  tried  to 
sneak  away  when  he  noticed  that  preparations  for 
cooking  were  forward.  Near  the  famous  Hanapepe 
Falls  is  the  cave  of  Makaopihi,  variously  regarded 
as  a  chief,  a  devil,  and  a  god,  who  took  refuge  here 
from  his  enemies,  but  every  now  and  then  showed 
his  contempt  for  them  by  going  down  the  long 
slope  that  is  still  called  his  slide, — a  recreation  that 
to  an  ordinary  mortal  would  mean  death. 

It  is  curious,  if  not  significant,  that  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Tahiti,  which  is  related  to  that  of  these 
islands,  Maui  appears,  not  as  a  place,  but  as  a  sun 
god  who  destroyed  his  enemies  with  a  jaw-bone, 
while  the  word  hawaii  means  hell.  Strange,  in- 
deed, that  one  of  the  most  heavenly  corners  of  the 
earth  should  have  taken  on  a  name  like  that.  The 
volcanoes  may  have  terrified  the  early  comers  to  such 
a  degree  that  it  seemed  the  only  fitting  one  if  they 
chanced  to  arrive  in  the  time  of  an  eruption. 


187 


Myths  and  Legends 

THE   GIANT   GODS 

GODS  and  demi-gods  as  vast  as  their  mountains 
are  celebrated  in  the  traditionary  chants  of 
the  Hawaiians.  While  the  largest  island  in  the 
group  seems  to  have  been  their  favorite  residence,  it 
was  the  easiest  thing  imaginable  to  move,  since  they 
had  only  to  step  on  board  of  their  enchanted  canoes 
and  make  a  wish  and  they  were  at  once  wafted  to 
any  port  they  desired.  A  few  of  them  did  not  need 
any  canoes :  they  were  of  such  height  they  could 
step  from  island  to  island,  and  could  wade  through 
the  deepest  oceans  without  submerging  their  heads. 
Kana  would  often  straddle  from  Kauai  to  Oahu,  like 
a  colossus  of  Rhodes,  and  when  a  king  of  Kahiki, 
who  was  keeper  of  the  sun,  undertook  to  deprive 
the  people  of  it,  because  of  some  slight,  Kana  waded 
across  the  sea  and  forced  that  king  to  behave  him- 
self instanter  ;  then,  having  seen  the  light  properly 
placed  in  the  sky,  he  spread  his  breech-clout  over  a 
few  acres  of  volcano  to  dry,  and  took  a  nap  on  a 
mile  or  so  of  lava  bed.  This  deity  had  the  power 
of  compressing  himself  into  a  small  space,  and  like- 
wise of  pulling  himself  out  to  any  desired  length, 
like  an  accordion,  so  that  there  was  not  water  in 
the  eight  seas  deep  enough  to  drown  him. 

And  Maui,    the  demi-god,  was    even  more  tre- 
mendous in  his  bulk.     Whales  were  his  playthings, 
and  sharks  were  minnows  beside  him.     He  had  to 
swim  in  water  that  reached  only  to  his  waist,  be- 
188 


In  the  Pacific 

cause  there  was  no  deeper,  and  even  then  his  head  was 
circled  by  clouds.  He  had  a  wife  of  an  immensity 
comparable  to  his  own.  Once,  while  busily  beat- 
ing out  a  piece  of  bark-cloth,  the  sun  sank  low  be- 
fore she  had  finished  her  task.  Like  the  excellent 
housewife  that  she  was,  she  did  not  wish  the  day  to 
end  on  work  unfinished,  so,  at  her  request,  Maui 
reached  out  into  the  west,  seized  the  sun,  without 
burning  his  fingers  much,  pulled  it  back  to  noon  and 
held  it  there  for  two  or  three  hours  while  the  mak- 
ing of  the  cloth  proceeded.  Then  it  resumed  its 
journey  through  the  heavens,  and  has  kept  excellent 
time  ever  since. 


THE   FIRST   FIRE 

THE  demi-god  Maui  lived  near  Mauna  Kea, 
and  in  roaming  over  that  mountain  he  often 
felt  the  chill  that  is  in  high  places.  It  set  him  won- 
dering why  the  volcano  gods  had  never  given  to 
men  the  secret  of  fire,  that  so  warmed  and  com- 
forted one  at  night.  To  take  it  from  the  craters 
was  dangerous.  One  was  liable  to  be  stifled  by 
sulphur,  blinded  by  dust,  scalded  by  steam,  and  de- 
stroyed by  lava,  for  the  crust  was  continually  break- 
ing and  falling.  The  mud-hens,  or  bald  coots,  had 
the  secret,  however,  and  when  he  came  upon  their 
little  fires  in  the  woods,  Maui  hid  among  the  trees 
and  watched.  Despite  his  vast  bulk,  he  was  not 
observed,  or  was  more  probably  mistaken  for  a  hill. 
189 


Myths  and  Legends 

for  presently  the  mud-hens  assembled  in  a  glade, 
before  his  eyes,  and  made  a  fire  by  rubbing  dry 
sticks  together.  They  cooked  fish  and  roots  over 
the  fire,  and  the  savor  of  the  banquet  was  so  appe- 
tizing that  Maui  could  not  resist  the  temptation :  he 
reached  out  and  confiscated  the  dinner,  and  the  mud- 
hens  flew  off  crying. 

His  attempt  to  catch  the  hens  and  learn  from 
them  how  to  make  fire  did  not  succeed  until  he  had 
rolled  himself  in  bark-cloth  ;  for,  so  disguised,  and 
after  patient  waiting,  he  captured  the  mother  hen. 
She  tried  to  deceive  him,  for  she  did  not  want  the 
secret  to  leave  her  family.  She  told  him  to  rub 
taro  stalks  on  the  line  of  their  spirals,  the  twist 
being  put  there  for  that  purpose.  He  tried  it  with- 
out effect,  and  gave  the  old  hen's  neck  a  twist  to 
make  her  tell  the  truth.  She  finally  showed  him 
how  to  make  sparks  with  old,  dry  chips,  and  he  let 
her  go,  but  not  until  he  had  rubbed  her  head  until 
it  was  raw,  to  punish  her  delay  and  falsehoods.  And 
to  this  day  the  head  of  this  bird  is  bare  of  feathers. 

THE  LITTLE   PEOPLE 

HAWAIIANS  believe  in  « little  people"  that 
live  in  deep  woods  and  peep  and  snicker  at 
travellers  who  pass.    This  belief  is  thought  to  go  back 
to  the  earliest  times,  and  to  hint  at  the  smallness  of 
the  original  Hawaiians,  for  one  may  take  with  a  grain 
of  salt  these  tales  of  the  giant  size  of  their  kings 
190 


In  the  Pacific 

and  fighters.  The  first  "  little  people"  were  grand- 
children of  Nuu,  or  Noah,  and  the  big  people  who 
came  after  were  Samoans.  While  anybody  may 
hear  these  fairies  running  and  laughing,  only  a  na- 
tive can  see  them.  They  are  usually  kind  and  help- 
ful, and  it  is  their  law  that  any  work  they  under- 
take must  be  finished  before  sunrise  ;  for  they  dislike 
to  be  watched,  and  scuttle  off  to  the  woods  at  dawn. 
Pi,  a  Kauai  farmer,  wanted  a  ditch  to  carry  water 
from  the  Waimea  River  for  the  refreshment  of  his 
land  near  Kikiloa,  and,  having  marked  the  route,  he 
ordered  the  menehune,  as  they  call  the  little  people, 
to  do  the  work.  It  would  have  been  polite  to 
ask  rather  than  to  command ;  still,  they  did  what 
was  required  of  them,  each  oaf  lugging  a  stone 
to  the  river  for  the  dam,  which  may  be  seen  to  this 
day.  The  hum  and  bustle  of  the  work  were  heard 
all  night,  and  so  pleased  was  the  farmer,  when 
morning  came  and  the  ditch  was  built,  that  he  set  a 
feast  for  the  menehune  on  the  next  night,  and  it  was 
gone  at  daybreak.  There  were  no  tramps  in  Ha- 
waii, so  the  menehune  must  have  eaten  it.  Con- 
ceiving that  he  had  acquired  what  our  ward  states- 
men call  a  "  pull"  with  these  helpers,  he  planned 
an  elaborate  fish-pond  and  put  them  at  work  again. 
He  had  staked  off  such  an  immense  area  that  the 
little  people  could  not  possibly  finish  it  by  morning. 
As  light  streaked  the  east  and  the  cocks  crew  they 
scampered  away  to  the  mountains,  dripping  with 
*weat  and  angered  at  the  man  who  had  so  abused 
191 


Myths  and  Legends 

their  willingness.  And  they  could  never  be  induced 
to  work  for  him  again. 

Although  of  supernatural  power  themselves,  the 
little  people  are  religious,  and  have  built  several 
houses  to  the  gods.  On  the  face  of  the  mountain 
wall,  two  thousand  feet  high,  back  of  the  leper  set- 
tlement at  Molokai,  is  a  ledge  that  can  be  reached 
neither  from  above  nor  below,  and  on  it  stands  a 
temple  of  their  construction.  In  Pepeeko,  Hilo, 
the  natives  labored  for  a  month  in  quarrying  and 
dressing  stone,  but  when  it  was  ready  the  elves 
built  their  temple  in  a  night.  So  at  Kohala  they 
formed  a  chain  twelve  miles  long  between  the  quarry 
and  the  site,  and,  passing  the  blocks  from  hand  to 
hand,  finished  the  great  enclosure  before  sunrise. 

Yet  these  fairies  had  a  taste  for  mischief,  and 
could  be  as  active  in  it  as  so  many  boys.  When  a 
child  on  Maui,  Laka  was  so  loved  by  his  father  that 
he  would  travel  many  miles  to  buy  a  toy  for  him, 
and  hearing  of  a  strange  new  plaything  in  Hawaii, 
the  father  sailed  to  that  island  to  get  it.  He  never 
returned,  for  the  natives  killed  him  and  hid  his 
skeleton  in  a  cave.  When  Laka  had  come  to  man's 
estate  he  began  preparations  for  a  voyage  to  that 
island,  that  he  might  either  find  his  father  or  know 
his  fate,  for  of  his  death  he  did  not  learn  until  long 
after.  In  these  preparations  he  was  oddly  thwarted. 
Every  time  he  hewed  down  a  tree  for  a  canoe  it  was 
gone  in  the  morning.  Out  of  patience,  he  resolved 
to  catch  the  thieves.  In  order  to  make  their  task 
192 


In  the  Pacific 

especially  hard,  he  dug  a  hole  into  which  the  tree  fell, 
when  he  had  chopped  it,  so  that  his  enemies  would 
have  to  lift  it  out  before  they  could  carry  it  away. 
Then,  in  the  shadow,  he  waited.  At  midnight  a 
small  humming  and  giggling  were  heard  in  the 
bushes  and  a  company  of  menehune  stole  out  into 
the  shine  of  the  moon.  They  began  to  tug  at  the 
fallen  tree.  Laka  sprang  upon  them  and  captured 
two,  the  others  running  away  with  shrill  screams. 
Laka  threatened  to  kill  his  prisoners  for  the  trouble 
they  had  made,  but  he  did  not  really  intend  to 
hurt  them.  Their  tears  and  cries  ano^  the  rapid 
beating  of  their  hearts,  that  he  could  feel  as  he 
held  them  under  his  arms,  stirred  his  pity,  and 
he  agreed  to  let  them  go  if  they  would  promise  to 
assemble  their  tribe,  drag  the  tree  to  his  canoe  shed 
on  the  shore  and  fashion  it  into  a  boat.  This  they 
promised  so  eagerly  that  he  put  them  back  on  the 
earth  and  laughed  as  they  scampered  into  the  thicket. 
True  to  their  promise,  they  dragged  the  tree  to  the 
ocean  that  very  night,  and  carved  and  hollowed  it 
into  the  finest  vessel  to  be  seen  on  the  island ;  so, 
friendly  relations  being  thus  established,  Laka  set  a 
feast  for  them,  which  they  ate  in  thankfulness  and 
never  troubled  him  more.  Whether  he  succeeded 
in  the  search  for  the  parental  bones,  or  left  his  own 
to  whiten  on  the  same  soil,  is  not  recorded,  but  you 
can  see  for  yourself  the  hollow  he  dug  for  the  tree, 
and  his  canoe  shed  was  standing  after  white  men 
reached  the  group. 

13  193 


Myths  and  Legends 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ILIAD 

TV"  AUPEPEE,  who  might  have  governed  Molo- 
J^^.  kai  in  the  twelfth  century,  had  he  not  chosen 
war  as  his  vocation,  was  a  believer  in  home  rule. 
He  did  not  like  the  immigrants  who  were  swarm- 
ing northward  from  Tahiti  and  Samoa.  Though 
they  resembled  his  own  race,  to  be  sure,  and  spoke 
a  language  he  could  understand,  he  regarded  them 
as  greedy  and  revolutionary,  and  they  worshipped 
strange  gods  and  sometimes  misused  the  people 
among  whom  they  had  cast  their  fortunes.  So  Kau- 
pepee  resigned  his  kingship  to  his  brother,  and  be- 
came a  fighter,  a  devastator.  With  some  hundreds 
of  hardy  men  at  arms  and  the  finest  ships  of  the 
time,  hewn  from  Oregon  pines  and  Canada  spruces 
that  had  drifted  to  the  islands,  he  bitterly  harassed 
the  other  kingdoms,  dashing  ashore  at  the  principal 
towns  in  buccaneer  fashion,  laying  violent  hands  on 
their  stores,  capturing  their  handsomest  women, 
breaking  the  taboo  in  their  temples,  killing  a  dozen 
of  their  men,  then  flying  to  his  canoes  again,  hoist- 
ing his  red  sails,  and  putting  off  before  the  aston- 
ished people  knew  exactly  what  had  happened. 

This  prince  had  fortified  himself  in  quite  a  mod- 
ern fashion  at  Haupu,  in  his  native  kingdom.  From 
the  land  side  the  tract  was  reached  only  by  a  narrow 
dike  which  he  had  walled  across  with  lava  blocks,  a 
tunnel  beneath  this  obstruction  affording  the  only 
194 


In  the  Pacific 

exit  toward  the  mountains.  On  the  ocean  front  he 
had  also  built  his  forts  of  stone,  although  the  sea 
boiled  five  hundred  feet  below  and  the  plateau  ended 
in  an  almost  sheer  precipice.  Deep  ravines  on 
either  side  of  the  stronghold  bent  around  it  to  the 
rocky  neck,  thus  making  the  place  almost  an  island. 
Jn  these  ravines  were  narrow  paths  by  which  his 
people  descended  to  their  boats,  secreted  on  the 
dark  and  winding  waters  or  hoisted  on  the  rocks. 
This  was  the  Troy  of  the  Pacific ;  Kaupepee  was 
the  Paris,  and  here  he  brought  his  Helen,  who  was 
Hina,  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her  day,  and 
the  wife  of  a  chief  in  Hawaii.  Kaupepee,  encour- 
aged by  his  oracles,  inflamed  by  reports  of  the 
woman's  charm,  had  been  lurking  along  the  coast 
for  some  time,  watching  for  his  opportunity.  It  came 
when  Hina  ventured  into  the  sea  to  bathe  on  a 
moonlight  evening.  Kaupepee,  dashing  from  his 
concealment,  intercepted  her  escape,  shouted  to  his 
men  who  were  in  waiting  behind  a  wooded  point,  and 
while  the  woman's  friends  and  attendants  fled  shriek- 
ing to  the  shore,  he  lifted  her  into  his  canoe,  pad- 
dled away  to  his  double  barge  a  half  mile  out,  placed 
his  lovely  captive  in  a  shelter  on  board,  and  began 
the  return  voyage.  The  drum  could  be  heard  in 
the  village  rousing  the  people,  and  lights  twinkled 
among  the  trees,  showing  that  a  pursuit  was  in- 
tended. In  vain.  The  dusky  Menelaus  may  have 
put  to  sea,  but  he  never  appeared  in  view  of  the 
flying  ships.  During  the  two  days  occupied  in  the 
195 


Myths  and  Legends 

run  to  Molokai  the  prisoner  refused  food,  and  begged 
to  be  put  to  death.  She  was  assured  that  no  harm 
was  intended  to  her.  On  arriving  at  the  fort  of 
her  captor  she  was  surprised  by  the  appearance  of 
women  who  had  been  stolen  from  her  villages  be- 
fore, and  who  were  now  to  be  her  maids ;  nor  could 
she  restrain  an  exclamation  of  pleasure  when  she 
was  ushered  into  what  for  the  next  eighteen  years 
was  to  be  her  home.  It  was  hung  and  carpeted 
with  decorated  mats  ;  its  wooden  frame  was  brightly 
painted,  festooned  with  flowers,  and  friezed  with 
shells ;  couches  of  sea-grass  were  overspread  with 
cloth  beaten  from  palm  fibre ;  heavy  curtains  hung 
at  the  doors ;  ranged  on  shelves  were  ornaments  and 
carved  calabashes,  while  there  was  a  profuse  array 
of  feathered  cloaks  and  other  modish  millinery  and 
raiment. 

All,  from  Kaupepee  to  the  humblest  soldier,  had 
paid  the  respect  to  her  that  was  the  due  of  a  queen. 
She  was  told  that  she  could  enjoy  a  certain  amount 
of  liberty,  and  if  she  suffered  from  her  slight  cap- 
tivity she  was  asked  what  might  be  thought  of  her 
new  lord  whose  heart  she  had  absolutely  in  her 
keeping,  and  who  was  therefore  less  free  than  she. 
This  pretty  speech  and  the  really  kind  treatment  she 
had  received,  together  with  a  hearty  and  needed 
meal  of  fruit,  fish,  potatoes,  and  poi,  caused  her  to 
look  on  her  situation  with  less  of  despair.  She  be- 
longed to  a  simple  race,  whose  moral  code  was  dif- 
ferent from  ours ;  she  was  more  luxuriously  sur- 
196 


In  the  Pacific 

rounded  than  she  had  ever  been  before ;  Kaupepee 
was  bold  and  handsome  ;  he  was,  moreover,  strangely 
gentle  in  her  presence,  thoughtful  of  her  comfort, 
and — well,  she  fell  out  of  love  with  her  old  hus- 
band and  in  love  with  the  new. 

Matters  were  not  so  very  dull  while  the  war  lord 
was  away  on  his  forays.  A  considerable  populace 
had  been  drawn  to  Haupu,  and  there  were  dances 
and  feasts,  games,  excursions,  trials  at  arms,  races, 
and  swimming  matches,  in  which  Hina  shared  when 
it  pleased  her.  Reservoirs  for  water,  storehouses 
for  food,  and  parks  of  ammunition  were  also  to  be 
established,  for  none  could  tell  when  the  fort  might 
be  attacked.  A  long  time  passed  before  it  was  be- 
sieged. That  time  might  never  have  come  had  not 
Hina  left  at  home  two  sons  with  long  memories. 
For  years,  as  they  approached  manhood,  they  de- 
voted themselves  to  rousing  the  people  of  all  the 
islands  and  preparing  a  navy  that  should  be  invin- 
cible. Kaupepee  kept  himself  informed  of  these 
measures,  and  now  and  again  discouraged  them  by 
swooping  on  their  shipyards,  destroying  their  craft, 
and  running  off  with  a  priest  or  two  for  a  sacrifice. 
This  kind  of  thing  merely  hastened  his  punishment, 
and  in  time  ten  thousand  soldiers  in  two  thousand 
boats  were  sighted  from  the  battlements  of  Haupu. 
A  land  force  was  sent  to  attack  the  stronghold  from 
the  hills.  Kaupepee's  brother  could  not  prevent 
this.  He  was  allowed  to  remain  neutral.  He  fore- 
saw the  inevitable.  When  he  implored  the  chief  to 
'197 


Myths  and  Legends 

give  up  Hina,  save  himself  and  his  warriors,  and 
agree  to  a  future  peace,  Kaupepee  would  not  listen. 
He  had  a  thousand  men,  well  armed,  and  his  ene- 
mies had  an  almost  life-long  hate  to  gratify.  "  If 
my  day  has  come,"  he  said,  "  let  it  be  as  the  gods 
will.  When  the  battle  is  over,  look  for  me  on  the 
walls.  I  shall  be  there  among  the  dead."  The 
king  went  away  with  bowed  head,  for  he  knew 
he  should  never  see  the  defender  of  Molokai 
again. 

Early  in  the  morning  the  fleet  put  out  from  its 
harborage,  where  the  gods  had  been  invoked  and 
the  priests  had  declared  the  omens  kindly.  The 
mother  of  Hina  stood  in  the  prow  of  one  of  the 
first  canoes,  her  white  hair  blowing  about  her  head 
in  snaky  folds,  her  black  eyes  glittering.  A  fire 
burned  before  her  on  an  altar  of  stone;  and  on  this 
she  threw  oils  and  gums  that  yielded  a  fragrant 
smoke.  As  the  walls  of  Haupu  came  in  sight, 
bristling  with  spears,  she  began  a  battle-song,  which 
her  warriors  took  up,  crew  by  crew,  until  the 
mighty  chant  echoed  from  the  crags  and  every  heart 
thrilled  with  the  hope  of  conflict.  As  the  boats 
advanced  almost  within  reach  of  the  slings  from  the 
citadel,  the  land  army  was  seen  advancing  over 
the  mountains  far  in  -the  distance.  Haupu  would  be 
beleaguered  shortly.  Kaupepee  gathered  his  people 
around  him,  told  of  the  odds  against  them,  and  con- 
fessed that  the  end  might  be  defeat,  adding  that  if  there 
was  one  whose  heart  failed  him  the  gates  were  open 
198 


In  the  Pacific 

and  he  could  leave,  freely,  with  the  good-will  of  all 
who  stayed. 

Not  a  man  moved.  With  one  cry  of"  Close  the 
gates !"  they  declared  for  death,  if  so  be  that  the 
gods  were  against  them.  The  chief  smiled  and  pre- 
pared for  the  defence.  Some  cried  that  the  shore 
was  crowded  with  enemies.  Kaupepee  replied, 
in  Spartan  phrase,  "  Our  spears  will  be  the  less 
likely  to  miss."  A  messenger  arrived  offering  terms 
if  Hina  were  given  up.  The  answer  was,  "  She 
is  here.  Come  and  take  her." 

The  land  force  had  been  making  a  demonstration 
against  the  narrow  bridge  of  rock  that  led  to  the 
fortress,  and  had  succeeded  so  well,  according  to  a 
prearranged  plan,  that  almost  the  entire  garrison 
had  crossed  the  plateau  to  that  side,  when  shouts  of 
triumph  arose  from  the  ravines.  The  enemy  had 
entered  them  and  was  smashing  the  boats  of  Kau- 
pepee to  fragments.  That  cry  of  defiance  was  mis- 
timed. In  a  few  moments  a  thunderous  roar  was 
heard  that  echoed  through  the  abyss  and  paralyzed 
the  hands  of  those  who  were  attacking  the  gates. 
The  men  who  had  run  to  the  walls,  on  hearing  the 
shouts  below,  had  let  loose,  into  the  depths,  a  deadly 
avalanche  of  earth,  rocks,  and  timber.  When  the 
dust  of  it  had  drifted  out,  scores-,  hundreds,  of  dead 
and  dying  were  seen  half-buried  in  the  fallen  mass. 
Armed  with  spears,  knives,  and  axes,  a  little  com- 
pany sprang  over  the  parapet,  and,  running  down  the 
narrow  trail  to  the  bottom,  despatched  the  sur- 
199 


Myths  and  Legends 

vivors, — all  save  a  few  who  swam  to  the  reserve 
boats,  and  six  who  were  carried  up  to  the  fort  for 
sacrifice.  One  majestic  chief,  who  had  led  this 
attack  from  the  sea,  avoided  knives  and  missiles 
and  drew  away  in  safety  with  the  other  few  who 
escaped.  He  was  one  of  the  sons  of  Hina.  "  He 
is  brave ;  I  am  glad  he  remains  unharmed,"  said 
Kaupepee. 

For  several  days  the  siege  went  on,  the  men 
within  the  defences  taking  heart  from  this  first  suc- 
cess, that  had  cost  the  enemy  two  thousand  men. 
The  sea  approach  was  abandoned,  and  now  that 
Kaupepee's  boats  were  destroyed  or  injured,  so  that 
he  could  not  get  away,  the  assailants  concentrated 
their  efforts  on  the  landward  side.  They  had  de- 
vised a  movable  wall  of  wood,  heavily  braced,  like 
that  used  by  the  Romans  and  Assyrians  in  their 
military  operations.  Foot  by  foot  they  gained  the 
isthmus  and  slowly  crossed  it,  those  immediately 
behind  this  defence  being  protected  from  the  slings 
and  javelins  of  the  garrison, — that  reached  those  at 
a  greater  distance,  however.  On  a  rainy  night 
they  pushed  this  wall  against  the  gates,  found  the 
entrance  to  the  tunnel,  and  at  dawn  were  ready  for 
the  final  assault.  It  began  with  a  downpour  of 
spears  and  stones,  before  which  it  was  impossible  to 
stand.  Then  the  heavy  slab  that  masked  the  inner 
door  to  the  tunnel  was  lifted,  and  in  another  minute 
five  thousand  men  were  pouring  over  the  walls  and 
through  the  passage.  Not  one  man  attempted  flight. 
200 


In  the  Pacific 

Contesting  every  inch  of  ground  and  fighting  hand 
to  hand,  the  men  of  Molokai  retired  before  the  in- 
vaders. There  was  an  incessant  din  of  weapons  and 
voices.  At  last,  the  garrison — the  fifty  who  were 
left  of  it — and  their  chief  were  crowded  to  the 
temple  in  the  centre  of  the  plain.  One  of  the  be- 
sieging party  scrambled  to  the  roof  and  set  it  afire 
with  a  torch.  The  fated  fifty  rushed  forth  only  to 
hurl  themselves  against  the  hedge  of  weapons  about 
them.  Kaupepee  was  transfixed  by  a  spear.  With 
his  last  strength  he  aimed  his  javelin  at  the  breast 
of  a  tall  young  chief  who  suddenly  appeared  before 
him, — aimed,  but  did  not  throw ;  for  he  recognized 
in  the  face  of  the  man  before  him  the  features  of  the 
woman  he  loved, — Hina.  The  javelin  fell  at  his 
side  and  he  tumbled  upon  the  earth,  never  to  rise 
again.  Every  man  in  Haupu  was  killed,  and  its 
walls  were  levelled.  Hina  was  found  in  her  cot- 
tage, and  although  she  bewailed  the  death  of  her 
lover,  she  rejoiced  in  her  restoration  to  her  mother 
and  her  sons. 


THE  HAWAIIAN   ORPHEUS  AND   EURY- 
DICE 

UPON  the  slopes  of  Hualalai,  just  under   the 
clouds  and  among  the  fragrant  sandal-woods, 
lived  Hana  and  her  son,  Hiku.     They  made  their 
living  by  beating  bark  into  cloth,  which  the  woman 
took  to  the  coast  to  swap  for  implements,  for  sea 
201 


Myths  and  Legends 

food,  for  sharp  shells  for  scraping  the  bark,  and  she 
always  went  alone,  leaving  Hiku  on  the  mountain  to 
talk  to  the  animals,  to  paint  pictures  on  the  cloth, 
and  to  play  on  curious  instruments  he  had  made 
from  gourds,  reeds,  and  fibre,  for  he  could  play 
music  that  made  the  birds  stop  in  their  flight  to  lis- 
ten. The  mother  loved  the  son  so  much  that  she 
wished  to  keep  him  by  her  so  long  as  she  lived,  and 
that  was  why  she  never  let  him  go  with  her  to  the 
shore.  She  believed  that  if  he  visited  the  towns 
and  tasted  the  joys  of  surf-riding,  shared  in  the 
games  of  the  athletes,  and  drank  the  beer  they 
brewed  down  there,  and  especially  if  he  saw  the 
pretty  girls,  he  would  never  go  back  to  his  mountain 
home.  And  though  Hiku  wondered  what  life  was 
among  the  people  on  the  shore,  he  was  obedient  and 
not  ill  content  until  he  had  passed  his  eighteenth 
birthday. 

As  he  sat  one  evening  with  eyes  fixed  on  the  far- 
off  sea,  sparkling  under  the  moon,  the  wind  brought 
the  hoarse  call  of  the  surf  and  a  faint  sound  of  hula 
drums,  and  a  sudden  impulse  came  upon  him  to  see 
the  world  for  himself.  He  called  to  his  mother 
that  he  was  going  down  the  mountain.  She  tried 
with  tears  and  prayers  and  warnings  to  stay  him, 
but  his  resolution  was  taken,  and  off  he  went,  saying 
that  he  would  be  back  again  some  day.  Though  he 
was  as  green  as  grass  and  untaught  in  the  practices 
of  the  settlements,  Hiku  was  a  fellow  of  parts.  He 
was  not  long  in  making  a  place  for  himself  in  soci- 

202 


In  the  Pacific 

cty,  and  his  first  proceeding  was  to  tumble  head 
over  heels  in  love.  His  flame  was  Kawelu.  She 
received  him  graciously,  flung  wreaths  of  flower 
petals  about  his  neck  in  the  pretty  fashion  of  her 
people  when  he  called,  as  he  did  every  day  from 
sunrise  until  dark  ;  and  when  he  could  row  a  canoe 
and  had  learned  how  to  swim  and  to  coast  over  the 
breakers  in  her  company,  he  had  gained  paradise. 

The  day  came,  however,  when  these  pleasures 
palled  upon  him,  when  he  wondered  if  his  mother 
had  kept  on  sorrowing,  when  he  had  a  longing  to 
see  his  old  home,  to  breathe  the  pure,  cool  air  of 
the  hills.  He  was  an  impulsive  fellow,  so  he  kissed 
Kawelu  and  told  her  that  he  must  go  away  for  a 
while ;  that  she  could  not  go  with  him,  because  his 
mother  would  probably  dislike  her.  He  had  not 
walked  a  mile  before  he  discovered  that  Kawelu  was 
following  secretly.  He  increased  his  speed,  yet  still 
she  followed,  and  presently  this  persistence  on  her 
part  began  to  anger  him.  The  one  thing  he  had 
taken  from  home  was  a  magic  staff  that  would  speak 
when  questions  were  put  to  it,  and  the  youth  now 
asked  what  could  be  done  to  turn  the  girl  home- 
ward. It  told  him  to  order  vines  to  spring  so 
thickly  behind  him  that  she  could  not  break  through, 
and  they  so  sprang  at  his  command.  He  could  no 
longer  see  Kawelu  when  he  looked  back,  though  he 
heard  her  voice  calling  softly,  reproachfully,  and 
when  he  reached  home,  to  the  joy  of  his  mother, 
he  knew  that  the  girl  must  have  given  up  the  pur- 
203 


Myths  and  Legends 

suit,  as  she  really  had  ;  for,  discouraged  by  the  steep- 
ness of  the  mountain  and  the  ever-increasing  tangle 
of  vegetation,  she  returned  to  her  village. 

This  seeming  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  young 
mountaineer  was  more  than  she  could  bear.  She 
lost  interest  in  sports  and  work,  fell  into  a  love- 
sickness,  and  though  her  father,  the  chief,  sacrificed 
many  black  pigs  on  her  behalf,  it  was  of  no  use, — 
she  died  of  a  broken  heart.  They  wrapped  her 
body  in  the  finest  cloth,  beaten  by  the  widow  and 
her  son,  and  placed  it,  with  many  lamentations,  in  a 
burial  cave  hard  by.  Such  was  the  dismal  news  that 
Hana  took  to  her  son  after  she  had  been  to  the  set- 
tlement to  sell  a  batch  of  fabric,  and  it  filled  Hiku 
with  consternation,  for  he  had  intended  to  go  back 
for  the  girl  as  soon  as  he  could  reconcile  his  mother 
to  the  idea  of  a  daughter-in-law.  He  realized  what 
a  fool  and  a  brute  he  had  been,  and  it  was  of  little 
use  for  him  to  tear  out  his  hair  and  roll  upon  the 
ground  in  the  way  he  did.  He  left  his  work  and 
wandered  among  the  lava  fields,  muttering  to  him- 
self, gesturing  wildly,  and  beating  his  breast.  Finally 
it  occurred  to  him  to  ask  his  staff  how  he  could 
amend  for  his  wrong-doing,  and  was  told  there  was 
but  one  way  :  to  rescue  the  girl  from  the  place  of  the 
dead,  in  the  pit  of  Milu,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
island. 

He  lost  no  time  in  obeying  this  oracle,  and  on 
arriving  at  the  wild  and  lonely  spot  he  made  a  swing 
of  morning-glory  vine,  which  here  grows  very  long, 
204 


In  the  Pacific 

and  let  himself  down,  having  first  smeared  himself 
with  rancid  grease  to  make  the  shades  believe  he  was 
dead.  Thousands  of  spirits  were  chasing  butterflies 
and  lizards  in  the  twilight  gloom  of  the  place  or 
lying  under  trees.  He  despaired  of  being  able  to 
discover  the  spirit  of  Kawelu.  But  she  had  seen 
him  ;  she  hurried  to  him  ;  she  clasped  him  in  a  fond 
embrace ;  for  she  had  forgiven  his  wrong  conduct, 
and  now  she  was  asking  him,  sympathetically,  how 
he  had  died.  He  evaded  an  answer,  but  bestowed 
on  her  a  thousand  endearments,  the  while  he  was 
slowly  working  his  way  up  the  vine,  in  which  he 
affected  to  be  merely  swinging ;  then,  just  as  she 
began  to  show  alarm  at  having  been  taken  so  far 
from  her  new  home,  he  clapped  a  cocoanut  shell 
over  her  head  and  had  her  safe,  a  prisoner. 

With  the  soul  enclosed  in  the  shell,  he  tramped 
back  to  her  home,  living  on  wild  fruits  and  yams  on 
the  way,  and  on  poi  that  was  offered  to  him  by 
strangers  whom  he  met.  The  chief  received  him 
and  his  news  joyfully,  but  he  did  not  know  how 
to  restore  a  soul  to  a  body  until  his  oldest  priest 
took  the  case  in  hand.  Kawelu's  corpse  was  taken 
from  the  tomb,  its  shiny  wrappings  were  removed 
and  incantations  were  performed  about  it.  Then 
the  priest  raised  a  toe-nail,  took  the  soul  from  the 
shell  and  pressed  it  under  the  nail,  working  it  up- 
ward with  both  hands.  It  passed  the  ankle  and 
knee  with  difficulty,  but  was  finally  pushed  into 
place  in  the  heart.  Kawelu  gasped,  opened  her 
205 


Myths  and  Legends 

eyes,  sat  up,  embraced  Hiku,  and  the  people  cried 
that  their  princess  was  alive  again.  There  was  a 
great  pounding  of  drums,  much  singing,  dancing, 
and  feasting ;  every  one  wore  wreaths,  and  Hiku 
was  praised  without  stint  for  his  love  and  daring. 
The  lovers  were  married,  never  to  part  again. 
Kawelu  remembered  nothing  of  what  had  happened 
to  her  after  she  was  turned  back  by  the  vines  on  the 
mountain,  and  did  not  know  that  her  soul  had  been 
among  the  dead.  And  though  he  might  have  taken 
a  dozen  wives  when  he  succeeded  his  father-in-law 
as  chief,  Hiku  loved  Kawelu  so  well  that  he  never 
thought  of  taking  even  a  second  helpmate.  He 
brought  his  mother  from  her  solitary  hut  on  the 
mountain,  and  she  and  the  bride  became  very  fond 
of  one  another.  So  all  the  days  of  Hiku  and  Kawelu 
thereafter  were  days  of  happiness. 

THE   REBELLION   OF   KAMIOLE 

IN  the  year  1170,  or  thereabout,  Kanipahu  was 
king  of  Hawaii.  He  was  of  Samoan  origin, 
grandson  of  the  builder  of  that  temple  whose  ruins 
are  still  to  be  seen  at  Puepa  in  walls  over  eight  hun- 
dred feet  around,  twenty-six  feet  high,  and  eight  feet 
thick  at  the  top.  It  is  recorded  that  the  stone  for 
this  construction  was  passed  from  hand  to  hand  by  a 
line  of  men  reaching  all  the  way  to  Niuli,  a  matter  of 
nine  miles.  Despite  the  improvements  in  building 
and  other  arts  that  had  come  in  with  the  Samoans, 
206 


In  the  Pacific 

the  Normans  of  this  Pacific  Britain  ;  despite  the  cen- 
tralizing of  power  that  enabled  them  to  break  down 
the  oppressions  of  petty  lords ;  despite  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  common  people,  the  aristocracy  was 
restive,  and  sought  constantly  for  excuses  to  rouse 
their  subjects  against  the  new  domination.  Wikoo- 
koo,  head  of  King  Kanipahu's  army,  having  eloped 
with  the  sister  of  Kamiole,  a  disaffected  chief,  the 
latter  burst  in  upon  the  king's  privacy  soon  after 
with  a  demand  for  vengeance.  He  had  met  the 
woman  near  the  king's  house  and  had  struck  her 
dead,  as  he  supposed,  that  she  might  not  be  "  de- 
graded" by  bearing  children  to  a  plebeian  immi- 
grant. 

The  king  was  a  just  and  patient  man,  and  kept 
his  temper,  in  spite  of  the  visitor's  harshness,  not 
only  to  Wikookoo  but  to  all  his  people.  Though 
he  could  have  ordered  him  to  be  slain,  he  yielded  to 
his  general's  demand  for  permission  to  fight  a  duel. 
The  pair  faced  each  other  at  fifty  feet,  hurled  two 
spears  without  effect,  then  closed  with  javelins.  Wi- 
kookoo was  hurt,  and  deeming  that  honor  was  satis- 
fied the  king  ordered  the  fight  to  cease.  Kamiole 
gave  no  heed  to  his  words.  He  had  a  tiger's  thirst 
for  blood.  Like  a  flash  he  leaped  upon  the  fallen 
man  and  pounded  the  weapon  into  his  heart.  This 
rebellion  against  the  king  and  the  savagery  of  the 
killing  caused  an  outcry  of  rage  and  horror.  The 
murderer's  chance  was  desperate.  "  Face  down  !" 
commanded  the  king.  This  was  the  command  to 
207 


Myths  and  Legends 

put  the  offender  to  death.  A  dozen  sprang  to  exe- 
cute the  order.  Kamiole  tugged  the  javelin  out  of 
his  foeman's  body  and  hurled  it  at  the  king.  It 
wounded  a  young  man,  who  had  flung  himself  in 
front  of  his  liege,  and  in  the  confusion  of  the  mo- 
ment Kamiole  escaped,  running  like  a  deer  through 
a  shower  of  stones  and  darts,  gaining  his  boat  and 
sailing  away  for  his  native  state  of  Kau. 

Blown  with  pride  in  his  exploit,  the  rebel  set 
about  the  raising  of  an  army  to  drive  the  new  people 
from  the  island.  It  needed  only  a  leader,  like  him,  to 
urge  disaffection  into  revolt,  and  not  many  weeks 
after  nearly  all  Hawaii  was  on  the  march  against  the 
king.  Deserted  by  thousands  of  his  followers,  and 
being  a  man  of  peace,  albeit  having  no  lack  of  cour- 
age, the  king  withdrew  to  the  island  of  Molokai  and 
became  a  simple  farmer  among  a  strange  people. 
He  was  nearly  seven  feet  in  height, — a  common 
stature  among  men  of  the  first  families  in  that  day, — 
and  the  neighbors  marked  him  ;  but  he  stooped  his 
shoulders  and  worked  hard ;  so,  ere  long,  his  ap- 
pearance was  not  accounted  strange.  Kamiole  was 
now  the  first  man  in  Hawaii.  He  was  not  a  re- 
former. Consumed  with  pride,  arrogant,  brutal, 
brooking  no  opposition,  he  made  enemies  day  by 
day.  Only  because  the  people  had  had  enough  of 
war  did  they  endure  in  silence,  and  hope  for  an  ill- 
ness or  an  accident  to  remove  the  now  hateful 
tyrant. 

Unknown  to  Kamiole,  the  sister  he  had  struck 
208 


In  the  Pacific 

down  survived  his  assault,  and  bore  a  daughter  to 
the  late  Wikookoo,  a  pretty  maid,  who,  in  good  time, 
married  the  son  of  the  exiled  king,  a  quiet,  dreamy 
youth,  who  lived  apart  from  his  fellows  in  the  inte- 
rior of  Hawaii,  finding  his  company  and  his  employ 
in  the  woods  and  on  the  vast  mountain  slopes. 
Eighteen  years  had  passed  when  this  prince  was 
rudely  waked  from  his  idyllic  life.  An  old  priest, 
who  alone  knew  the  hiding-places  of  the  king  and 
his  son,  had  tried  to  rouse  the  former  to  reassert  his 
rule.  The  king  welcomed  him  and  wished  success 
to  the  movement  for  the  overthrow  of  Kamiole,  but 
he  refused  command  of  his  old  army, — refused  to 
return  to  Hawaii.  "I  am  old,"  said  he,  "and  so 
bent  that  I  can  no  longer  look  over  the  heads  of  my 
people,  as  becomes  a  king.  I  am  no  longer  served 
with  dainties ;  in  the  noon  heat  no  servant  fans  me 
or  brings  water ;  I  live  in  a  hut  and  fare  on  coarse 
food  ;  but,  old  friend,  I  eat  with  an  appetite,  I  sleep 
like  a  tired  and  honest  man ;  I  have  forgotten  cere- 
mony and  care,  and  I  am  happy.  Not  to  be  king 
of  all  these  islands,  and  the  islands  of  our  fathers 
likewise,  would  I  return.  See  how  blue  the  sky  is, 
how  fresh  the  trees  and  grass  !  What  music  in  the 
roll  of  the  ocean  and  in  the  birds*  songs !  What 
sweetness  in  the  flowers !" 

Wondering  at  this  change  in  his  former  master, 
the  priest  dropped  his  hands  in  a  gesture  of  despair. 
"  Then  our  cause  is  lost,"  said  he. 

"  Not  so,"  answered  the  king.     "  Go  to  my  son. 


Myths  and  Legends 

Tell  him  his  father  wishes  him  to  reign.  Untried 
as  he  is,  he  has  my  strength  ;  he  is  resolute,  he  is 
wise,  he  loves  justice.  He  will  head  your  men  of 
war." 

The  prince  was  found  to  be  a  willing  leader. 
The  arrogance  of  Kamiole,  the  decreasing  liberties 
of  the  people,  the  thought  that  the  dictator  had  at- 
tempted the  lives  of  his  father  and  his  wife's  parents, 
stirred  in  him  resolves  of  vengeance.  The  fickle 
masses  that  eighteen  years  before  had  overturned  his 
dynasty  now  gathered  under  his  standard,  and  battle 
was  offered  at  Anehomaloo.  Kamiole  had  the  fewer 
men,  but  the  better  position,  being  defended  in  front 
by  a  stone  wall  five  feet  high  that  stretched  across 
the  plain,  and  at  the  back  by  a  gorge  too  deep  and 
steep,  as  he  imagined,  for  an  enemy  to  cross.  The 
fight  was  fierce  and  long,  and  thousands  fell  on  both 
sides.  The  prince  was  cautious,  however,  for  he 
was  waiting  the  result  of  a  secret  move :  an  assault 
on  the  rear  of  his  foe  by  a  large  body  of  spearmen 
who  were  making  a  long  detour  to  prevent  detection 
of  this  manoeuvre.  Presently  he  saw  the  stir  and 
shimmer  of  arms  on  the  hill  beyond  the  chasm,  and 
ordering  a  general  charge  on  Kamiole,  kept  him  so 
occupied  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  that  the  advance 
from  the  hill  was  not  observed  until  the  detachment 
had  descended  the  ravine,  clambered  up  again,  and 
was  now  rushing  upon  the  doomed  army.  Penned 
between  two  forces,  Kamiole's  men  were  beaten  to 
the  earth,  and  the  battle  ended  in  a  massacre. 

210 


In  the  Pacific 

When  the  successful  movement  was  made  across 
the  ravine  the  prince  was  astonished  to  see  at  the 
head  of  his  troops  in  the  distance  a  stranger, — a  tall, 
weathered,  sinewy  man  with  a  mass  of  white  beard 
and  hair  that  flowed  over  his  chest  and  shoulders, — 
who  hewed  a  passage  through  the  battling  legion 
with  a  club  that  few  men  could  have  lifted.  After 
the  fight  this  stranger  stood  long  before  the  fallen 
Kamiole  and  looked  into  his  fading  eyes.  As  the 
prince  hastened  to  the  dying  tyrant,  his  princess  fol- 
lowed with  a  calabash  of  water ;  for  in  those  times 
women  accompanied  their  husbands  and  brothers  to 
the  field,  waiting  at  a  little  distance  to  dress  their 
wounds  and  supply  food  and  drink.  His  stature 
had  enabled  her  to  keep  him  in  sight,  and  she  was 
now  about  to  offer  the  drink  to  him,  when  Kamiole, 
though  he  had  never  before  seen  his  niece,  ap- 
peared to  recognize  her  voice,  and  faintly  exclaimed, 
"  lola !" 

"  My  mother's  name  !"  cried  the  princess,  in  sur- 
prise. "  Then  you  must  be  her  brother."  Drop- 
ping on  her  knees  at  his  side,  she  gave  the  water  to 
Kamiole.  The  dying  man  extended  his  hands  to- 
ward her  and  drew  a  deep  breath, — his  last. 

The  prince,  who  had  been  smiling  at  this  unusual 
mercy  to  an  enemy,  now  looked  up  and  caught  the 
eye  of  the  stranger  fixed  intently  upon  him.  "  By 
whose  arm  did  Kamiole  fall  ?"  he  asked. 

"  By  mine,"  replied  the  white-haired  man. 

"  Are  you  a  god  ?"  asked  the  prince,  a  sense  of 

211 


Myths  and  Legends 

awe  creeping  over  him  as  he  noted  the  strength  and 
dignity  of  this  form. 

"  I  am  Kanipahu, — your  father." 

And  among  the  heaped  dead  the  two  embraced. 
Having  seen  his  son  enthroned  and  peace  restored, 
the  old  king  refused  all  offers  and  persuasions,  and 
went  back  to  Molokai  to  end  his  days  in  peace  as  a 
simple  farmer.  The  prince,  whose  name  was  Kala- 
pana,  and  who  was  the  ancestor  of  the  great  Kame- 
hameha,  reigned  tranquilly  and  died  lamented. 

THE  JAPANESE   SWORD 

MORE  than  two  centuries  before  Columbus 
reached  America  on  its  Atlantic  side  a  Japa- 
nese junk  visited  the  western  shore.  The  tradition  is 
too  vague  to  specify  whether  the  navigators  attempted 
a  landing  or  not,  but  as  their  boat  was  small  and 
could  not  have  been  provisioned  for  a  voyage  of  thou- 
sands of  miles,  it  is  probable  that  they  took  on  fresh 
supplies  of  food  and  water  before  they  put  about 
and  started  on  the  homeward  journey.  They  never 
saw  Japan  again,  for  their  vessel  went  to  wreck  on 
Maui,  whose  king  personally  rescued  five  of  them, — 
three  men  and  two  women.  This  was  the  second 
appearance  in  the  Hawaiian  islands  of"  white  people 
with  shining  eyes."  When  the  captain  of  the  junk 
reached  the  shore  he  still  carried  the  keen  sword  of 
steel  he  had  girded  on  in  the  expectation  of  an  at- 
tack from  savages.  There  was  no  attack.  He  and 

212 


In  the  Pacific 

his  mates  were  received  with  kindness,  and  pro- 
vided with  houses,  although  they  shocked  the  multi- 
tude by  their  ignorance  of  the  taboo,  the  men  and 
women  eating  from  the  same  dishes.  It  was  ex- 
plained that  their  gods  were  poor,  half-enlightened 
creatures,  and  that  it  was  as  well  to  let  them  alone 
until  they  should  learn  truth  and  manners. 

In  time  these  castaways  took  Mauians  to  husband 
and  wife,  the  captain's  sister  marrying  the  king 
himself,  but  the  captain  was  held  in  superstitious 
reverence  because  of  his  sword.  The  natives  had 
daggers,  knives,  axes,  adzes,  hammers,  and  spears  of 
stone,  bone,  shark  teeth,  and  fire-hardened  wood, 
but  metals  were  unknown  to  them,  and  this  long, 
glittering  blade,  that  cut  a  javelin  stem  as  the  javelin 
would  crack  a  rib,  was  a  daily  wonder.  It  was  the 
common  belief  on  that  island  that  whoever  wielded 
the  weapon  would  win  a  victory,  though  his  ene- 
mies should  be  thousands  in  number.  This  belief 
was  comforting,  but  it  did  not  last,  for  Kalaunui, 
king  of  Hawaii,  undertook  in  the  year  1260  the 
subjugation  of  the  whole  group,  and  although  his 
force  was  defeated  with  great  slaughter  on  Kauai,  he 
had  subdued  Maui,  Oahu,  and  Molokai,  for  the  time 
being,  with*his  fleet  of  two  thousand  well-manned, 
well-armed  canoes. 

In  the  great  fight  on  Maui  the  Japanese  warrior 

fought  to  the  last,  but  was  struck  down  by  a  Hawaiian 

captain,  one  Kaulu,  who  buried  the  precious  sword  on 

the  spot  where  he  had  taken  it,  and  recovered  it  by 

213 


Myths  and  Legends 

starlight.  Knowing  that  the  king  would  demand  it 
if  it  were  seen,  he  gave  it  in  charge  of  his  mother 
Waahia,  a  seer  of  such  renown  and  verity  that  she 
accompanied  the  army  at  the  request  of  its  leaders. 
The  old  woman  concealed  the  blade  in  the  hollow 
of  a  rock.  Unhappily  for  her  cause,  she  had  not 
foreseen  the  result  of  this  campaign,  for  the  expedi- 
tion met  its  Waterloo  on  the  shores  of  Kauai,  hun- 
dreds of  the  men  being  drowned  or  slain  by  slings 
and  javelins  before  a  landing  could  be  made.  King 
Kalaunui  was  made  prisoner,  the  kings  of  Maui, 
Oahu,  and  Molokai,  whom  he  had  taken  with  him  as 
hostages  for  the  surrender  of  their  islands  when  he 
should  return,  were  released,  and  a  remnant  of  the 
invading  force,  under  lead  of  Kaulu,  returned.  The 
queen  was  filled  with  wrath  at  the  failure  of  this  ex- 
pedition, and  rebuked  Kaulu  for  treachery  and  cow- 
ardice,— Kaulu,  who  had  stood  by  his  lord  to  the 
moment  of  his  capture,  and  who  had  wrested  the 
magic  sword  from  its  owner. 

Burning  under  this  charge,  he  sought  his  mother 
and  asked  what  he  should  do  to  disprove  it.  She 
replied  that  he  should  not  only  be  cleared  by  the 
king  himself,  but  he  should  marry  the  king's  daugh- 
ter. The  queen  began  at  once  to  negotiate  for  the 
release  of  her  husband.  That  monarch  was  con- 
fined in  a  hut,  surrounded  by  a  stone  wall  and 
strongly  guarded,  but  was,  nevertheless,  treated  with 
the  respect  and  distinction  worthy  of  the  Napoleon 
that  he  was.  A  fleet  of  canoes  with  many  spears 
214 


In  the  Pacific 

was  offered  in  exchange ;  but,  with  the  spoils  of 
battle  still  in  their  possession,  the  victors  only  smiled 
at  this.  Next  came  an  offer  of  twenty  feather  cloaks, 
with  stone  axes,  ivory,  and  whalebone  ;  but  this,  too, 
was  rejected.  A  third  proposition  by  the  queen  was 
that  the  ruler  of  Kauai  should  wed  her  daughter  and 
agree  to  a  perpetual  peace.  This  came  to  nothing. 
Several  attempts  were  made  to  renew  the  war,  but 
they  fell  flat,  for  the  experience  had  been  too  bitter 
and  the  people  refused.  Three  years  thus  passed, — 
a  time  sufficient  to  convince  the  queen  of  her  polit- 
ical weakness.  She  had  almost  resigned  hope  when 
old  Waahia  sought  an  audience  at  court,  and  said, 
when  she  had  received  permission  to  break  the  taboo 
and  speak  before  the  councillors,  that  she,  and  she 
alone,  could  rescue  the  king,  but  she  would  not 
undertake  this  unless  the  chiefs  would  promise  to 
grant  her  request,  whatever  it  might  be,  on  their 
lord's  return. 

This  pledge  they  gave  with  the  understanding 
that  it  was  not  to  affect  life  or  sovereignty  or  posses- 
sions, and  the  seer  left  for  Kauai,  with  but  a  single 
oarsman,  in  the  morning.  She  arrived  while  the 
new-year  festivities  were  in  progress,  and  everybody 
was  in  good-humor.  There  were  music,  dancing, 
chanting  of  poems  and  traditions,  feasting,  and  much 
swigging  of  spirits,  not  to  speak  of  indulgences  that 
would  have  shocked  civilization.  Unannounced,  a 
weird-like,  commanding  figure,  Waahia  sought  the 
presence  of  the  court.  She  had  come,  she  said,  to 
215 


Myths  and  Legends 

royal  pris- 
oner:  the  offer  of  a  sword  that  flashed  like  fire,  that 
was  harder  than  stone,  that  broke  spears  like  reeds, 
that  gave  to  its  owner  supreme  fortune  and  supreme 
command.  The  fame  of  the  bright  knife  had  gone 
abroad  ere  this,  and  an  offer  had  at  last  been  made 
that  carried  persuasion  with  it.  The  liberty  of  the 
king  was  promised  when  it  should  be  brought.  But 
first  she  wished  the  prisoner's  assurance  that  on  his 
return  he  would  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  her 
son,  since  the  young  people  loved  each  other,  and 
the  marriage  would  also  remove  the  disgrace  that  the 
queen  had  angrily  tried  to  fix  upon  Kaulu. 

This  was  agreed  to,  and  a  few  days  later  the  old 
woman  reappeared  at  the  palace  with  the  splendid 
weapon, — one  that  would  still  be  splendid,  for  such 
blades  are  not  made  nowadays, — and  with  general 
rejoicing  at  the  possession  of  this  wonder,  the  chiefs 
liberated  Kalaunui,  and  he  returned  to  Hawaii,  cured 
of  ambition  for  leadership  and  military  glory.  His 
daughter  was  married  to  Kaulu,  captain  of  the  royal 
guard,  and  kings  were  their  descendants.  For  many 
years  the  glittering  prize  remained  with  the  ruling 
house  of  Kauai,  but  its  virtue  had  fled  when  the 
invincible  Kamehameha  undertook  the  conquest  of 
the  islands  and  their  union  under  a  single  king,  for 
he  succeeded  in  that  enterprise,  as  Kalaunui  had  not. 


216 


In  the  Pacific 

LO-LALE'S   LAMENT 

LO-LALE,  a  prince  of  Oahu  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  took  no  joy  in  the  sea  after  the  girl 
had  been  drowned  in  it  who  was  betrothed  to  him. 
Retiring  inland,  he  led  a  quiet,  thoughtful  life,  to 
the  regret  of  those  who  had  looked  to  see  him  show 
some  fitness  in  leadership,  for  as  youth  verged  to- 
ward middle  age  he  was  repeatedly  besought  to 
marry,  that  his  princely  line  might  be  continued. 
Tired  of  these  importunities,  and  possibly  not  averse 
to  the  lightening  of  his  spirit,  he  consented  that  a 
wife  should  be  sought  for  him,  and  appointed  his 
handsome,  dashing  cousin,  Kalamakua,  as  his  agent 
in  the  choice.  The  cousin  sailed  at  once  for  Maui, 
where  rumor  said  a  young  woman  of  rare  beauty  was 
living  at  the  court,  whose  hand  had  been  sought  by  a 
dozen  chiefs.  On  arriving  near  the  shore  of  the 
king's  domain  the  messenger  and  his  rowers  were 
startled  by  the  uprising  from  the  waves  of  a  laugh- 
ing, handsome  face,  and  behold !  the  woman  who 
introduced  herself  in  this  unusual  fashion  was  the 
one  they  sought :  Kelea,  the  king's  sister.  She  had 
been  surf-riding  on  her  board,  and  in  the  delight  of 
swimming  had  ventured  farther  from  shore  than  usual. 
The  captain  of  the  canoe  helped  this  dusky  Venus 
to  rise  completely  from  the  sea,  and  as  she  did  not 
wish  to  return  at  once,  he  put  his  boat  at  her  service 
for  the  exhilarating  and  risky  sport  of  coasting  the 
breakers ;  but  putting  far  out  to  meet  a  wave  of  un: 
217 


Myths  and  Legends 

common  size,  they  were  struck  by  a  squall  and  blown 
so  far  that  they  found  it  easier  to  put  in  for  shelter 
near  the  home  of  Lo-Lale  than  to  return  to  Maui. 
The  storm,  the  spray,  the  chilling  gusts,  compelled 
Kelea  to  sit  close  in  the  shelter  of  Kalamakua's  sturdy 
form.  He  levied  on  the  scant  draperies  of  his  crew 
for  cloth  to  keep  her  warm,  and  all  the  men  dined 
scantily  that  she  might  be  fed.  It  is  not  strange 
that  a  friendship  was  born  on  that  voyage  between 
the  two  people  who  had  been  so  oddly  introduced. 
Lo-Lale  had  never  heard  of  John  Alden  and  Myles 
Standish,  principally,  no  doubt,  because  they  had 
not  been  born,  but  it  must  be  allowed  in  his  behalf, 
or  in  hers,  that  he  had  never  seen  the  damsel  whom 
he  was  courting  thus  by  proxy.  When  he  did  be- 
hold her  he  was  vastly  pleased,  and  as  he  appeared 
in  all  the  paraphernalia  of  his  rank  and  instituted  in 
her  honor  a  series  of  feasts  and  entertainments  unpar- 
alleled in  Oahu,  the  consent  of  Kelea  to  a  speedy 
marriage  was  obtained,  a  courteous  notice  to  that 
effect  being  sent  to  her  relatives,  who  had  mourned 
for  her  as  lost  in  the  storm.  He  built  a  temple  and 
adorned  it  with  a  statue  as  a  thank-offering  for  having 
blown  so  fair  a  bride  to  his  domain.  No  prettier  com- 
pliment could  be  paid  to  a  wife,  even  by  a  white  man. 
For  a  time  Kelea  was  content.  Lo-Lale  was  a 
kind  husband,  and  he  was  constantly  studying  to 
advance  her  happiness,  but  he  was  meditative  and 
silent ;  he  loved  the  woody  solitudes,  while  she  was 
fond  of  company,  babble,  sport,  and  especially  of 
218 


In  the  Pacific 

swimming  and  surf-riding.  Presently  it  was  noticed 
that  she  laughed  less.  She  did  not  welcome  Lo-Lale 
when  he  returned  from  his  walks  or  his  communings 
with  Nature  on  the  hills.  The  voice  of  the  sea  was 
calling  her, — and  the  voice  of  Kalamakua.  A  sepa- 
ration had  to  come.  It  was  without  any  spoken  bit- 
terness. The  husband  wished  her  well,  bestowed 
on  her  some  parting  gifts,  and  sent  her  to  the  shore 
in  a  palanquin  borne  by  four  men  and  attended  by  a 
guard  of  three  hundred,  as  became  her  station. 
Kalamakua  was  waiting  on  the  beach, — Kalamakua, 
handsome,  reckless,  ardent.  She  never  returned  to 
Maui.  Though  Lo-Lale  resumed  his  old,  still  way 
and  kept  his  dignity  and  countenance  before  his 
people,  his  lament,  that  has  been  preserved  by  the 
treasurers  of  island  traditions  for  more  than  four 
centuries,  discovers  a  pang  in  his  heart  deeper  than 
he  could  or  would  have  voiced  when  he  parted  from 
his  wife.  The  English  version  is  by  King  Kalakaua  : 

"  Farewell,  my  partner  on  the  lowland  plains, 
On  the  waters  of  Pohakeo,  above  Kanehoa, 
On  the  dark  mountain  spur  of  Mauna-una ! 
O,  Lihue,  she  is  gone ! 
Sniff  the  sweet  scent  of  the  grass, 
The  sweet  scent  of  the  wild  vines 
That  are  twisted  by  Waikoloa, 
By  the  winds  of  Waiopua, 
My  flower  ! 

As  if  a  mote  were  in  my  eye. 
The  pupil  of  my  eye  is  troubled. 
Dimness  covers  my  eyes.     Woe  is  me !" 
219 


Myths  and  Legends 


THE   RESURRECTIONS   OF   KAHA 

KAHA  was  granddaughter  of  the  Wind  and  the 
Rain,  whose  home  is  still  among  the  vapory 
darks  that  settle  in  the  valley  of  Manoa,  back  of 
Honolulu,  her  remote  ancestors  being  the  mountain 
Akaaka  and  the  Cape  Nalehuaakaaka.  She  was  of 
such  beauty  that  light  played  about  her  when  she 
bathed,  a  rosy  light  such  as  the  setting  sun  paints 
on  eastern  clouds,  and  an  amber  glow  hovered  above 
the  roof  that  sheltered  her.  From  infancy  she  had 
been  betrothed  to  Kauhi,  a  young  chief  whom  every 
one  supposed  to  be  worthy  of  her,  because  his  par- 
entage was  high,  and  he  could  name  more  grand- 
fathers than  he  had  toes  and  fingers.  He  did  not 
deserve  this  esteem,  for  he  was  not  only  cruel  and 
jealous,  but  spoiled,  petulant,  and  thick-headed.  His 
qualities  were  exhibited  on  his  very  first  meeting 
with  his  promised  bride,  for  neither  had  seen  the 
other  until  reaching  marriageable  age.  Two  brag- 
garts, who  were  so  ill  formed  and  ugly  that  their 
boasts  of  winning  ladies'  favor  would  have  been 
taken  by  any  one  else  for  lies,  declared,  in  Kauhi's 
hearing,  that  they  were  lovers  of  Kaha,  and  they 
wore  wreaths  of  flowers  which  they  said  she  had 
hung  over  their  shoulders. 

Setting  his  teeth  with  a  vengeful  scowl  and 
wrenching  a  stout  branch  from  a  tree,  the  prince 
strode  over  to  the  house  of  his  bride-to-be.  She  re- 

220 


In  the  Pacific 

ccivcd  him  modestly  and  pleasantly,  and  her  beauty 
struck  him  into  such  an  amazement  that  he  could 
not  at  first  find  words  to  express  the  charge  he 
wished  to  make.  At  last,  by  turning  his  back,  he 
managed  to  speak  his  base  and  foolish  thought.  She, 
thinking  this  a  jest,  at  first  made  light  of  it,  but 
when  he  faced  her  once  more,  frowning  this  time, 
like  a  thunder-cloud,  and  brandishing  the  cudgel 
above  his  head,  she  was  filled  with  fear  and  could 
hardly  keep  her  feet.  She  denied  the  charge.  She 
begged  that  he  would  tell  the  names  of  her  accusers 
that  she  might  prove  her  innocence. 

"  You  are  fair  to  see  and  to  hear,  but  you  are  as 
fickle  as  your  parents.  I  will  have  no  such  woman 
for  a  wife,"  shouted  the  chief,  lashing  himself  into 
a  rage.  She  extended  her  arms  appealingly.  He 
struck  her  on  the  temple,  and  she  fell  dead.  He  had 
gone  but  a  mile  or  so  when  her  voice  was  heard  in 
song  behind  him,  and  the  fall  of  her  steps  on  the 
path.  To  his  astonishment,  she  now  appeared  bear- 
ing no  mark  of  injury,  save  that  the  rough  way  had 
cut  her  feet,  and  again  she  besought  him  to  say  on 
whose  charge  he  had  so  foully  wronged  her  in  his 
thought,  and  why  he  wished  to  kill  her.  His  an- 
swer was  another  blow,  more  savage  than  the  first, 
and  this  time  there  was  no  doubt  that  he  left  her 
dead.  Yet,  before  he  had  gone  another  mile,  her 
lamenting  song  was  heard ;  she  came  to  him,  and 
he  struck  her  down  again.  Five  times  this  monster 
laid  the  defenceless  girl  a  corpse,  and  the  last  time 

221 


Myths  and  Legends 

he  scraped  a  hole  under  the  tough  roots  of  a 
tree,  crowded  her  body  into  it,  covered  it  with 
earth,  and  went  on  to  Waikiki  without  further  in- 
terruption. 

The  owl-god  had  been  Kaha's  friend.  After  each 
stroke  he  had  flown  to  her,  rubbed  his  head  against 
the  bruised  and  broken  temple,  and  restored  her  to 
life.  To  drag  her  from  under  the  tangled  roots  was 
beyond  his  strength,  and  he  flapped  away  into  the 
depths  of  the  wood,  filled  with  sadness  that  such 
beauty  had  been  lost  to  the  world.  But  it  was  not 
lost.  The  girl's  spirit  could  not  rest  under  the  false 
accusal  that  had  caused  her  death.  All  bloody  and 
disfigured,  her  ghost  presented  itself  before  Mahana, 
a  young  warrior  of  the  nearest  town,  with  whom  she 
had  in  life  exchanged  a  kind  though  casual  word 
or  two,  and  understanding,  through  his  own  deep 
but  unspoken  love,  the  reason  for  this  visitation, 
he  hurried  after  the  phantom  as  it  drifted  back  to 
the  tree.  The  disturbed  earth  and  the  splashes  of 
blood  explained  enough.  He  set  to  work  vigor- 
ously, exhumed  the  body  while  it  was  still  warm, 
and  holding  it  close  to  his  breast,  with  eyes  fixed 
on  the  hurt  but  lovely  face,  he  carried  it  to  his 
home. 

Once  more  the  gods  befriended  her  and  restored 
Kaha  to  life.  For  many  days  she  was  ill  and  weak, 
and  throughout  those  days  it  was  Mahana's  delight 
to  serve  her,  to  talk  with  her,  to  sit  at  her  side,  and 
hold  her  hand.  This  life  of  love  and  tenderness 
222 


In  the  Pacific 

was  a  new  and  delightful  one  ;  yet  she  sorrowfully 
declared  that  she  must  become  the  wife  of  Kauhi, 
because  her  parents  had  so  intended.  The  lover 
was  not  content  with  this.  He  made  a  visit  to  Kauhi, 
and  in  the  course  of  their  talk  he  mentioned,  as 
the  merest  matter  of  fact,  the  visit  of  the  famous 
beauty  to  his  home.  Kauhi  pooh-poohed  this.  He 
was  sure  of  the  girl's  death.  Mahana  adroitly  kept 
the  conversation  on  this  theme  until  Kauhi  lost  his 
temper,  confessed  that  he  had  killed  Kaha  for  faith- 
lessness, and  swore  that  the  woman  whom  Mahana 
sheltered  was  a  spirit  or  an  impostor.  He  would 
wager  his  life  that  it  was  so.  The  lover  took  the 
wager.  It  was  agreed  that  the  loser  should  be 
roasted  alive.  A  number  of  chiefs,  priests,  and 
elderly  men  were  assembled,  and  the  girl  was  brought 
into  their  presence.  It  was  no  spirit  that  bent  the 
grass  and  fixed  on  the  quailing  ruffian  that  look  of 
soft  reproach.  No  impostor  could  boast  such  beauty. 
Kauhi  tried  to  exonerate  his  conduct  by  repeating 
the  falsehoods  of  the  two  men  who  claimed  to  have 
received  her  favors.  They  were  dragged  before  the 
assembly,  confronted  by  the  innocent  Kaha,  made 
confession,  and  were  ordered  to  the  ovens,  where 
Kauhi  also  went  to  his  death,  vaunting  to  the  last. 
The  lands  and  fish-ponds  of  this  chief,  who  had  no 
owl-god  to  resurrect  his  ashes,  were,  with  general 
acclaim,  awarded  to  Mahana,  and  as  chief  he  ruled 
happily  for  many  years  with  the  fair  Kaha  for  his 
wife. 

223 


Myths  and  Legends 


HAWAIIAN    GHOSTS 

HAWAII  has  its  "  haunts"  and  "  spooks,"  just 
as  do  some  countries  that  do  not  believe  in 
such  things.  One  of  the  spectres  troubles  a  steep 
slope  near  Lihue,  Kauai.  An  obese  and  lazy  chief 
ordered  one  of  his  retainers  to  carry  him  to  the  top 
of  the  slope  on  his  shoulders.  It  was  a  toilsome 
climb,  the  day  was  hot,  hence  it  is  no  wonder  that 
just  before  he  gained  the  summit  the  man  staggered, 
fell,  and  sent  his  dignified  and  indignant  lord  sprawl- 
ing on  the  rocks.  This  was  a  fatal  misstep,  for  the 
chief  ran  the  poor  fellow  through  with  his  spear. 
And  the  ghost  possibly  laments  because  it  did  not 
drop  its  burden  sooner  and  with  more  emphasis. 

Another  place  that  the  natives  avoid  is  the  Sugar 
Loaf  on  Wailua  River,  Kauai.  Hungry  robbers 
broke  a  taboo  and  ate  some  bananas  that  had  been 
consecrated  to  a  local  god,  Kamalau.  Missing  the 
fruit,  the  deity  turned  himself  into  the  rock  known 
as  the  Sugar  Loaf,  which  is  sixty  feet  high,  that  he 
might  watch  his  plantation  without  being  identified. 
The  thieves  noticed  the  rock,  however,  could  not 
recall  that  it  had  been  there  on  the  day  before,  and 
suspecting  something  kept  away.  The  sister  of  the 
god,  believing  him  to  be  lost,  leaped  into  the  river 
and  became  a  stone  herself.  And  so,  having  rid 
themselves  of  the  flesh,  these  two  are  free  to  wander 
in  the  spirit. 

•     224 


In  the  Pacific 

Another  deity  that  is  occasionally  seen  is  Kameha- 
meha's  large  war  god,  from  his  temple  in  Hawaii, 
that  even  in  his  lifetime  would  leave  its  pedestal  and 
thrash  among  the  trees  like  a  lost  comet. 

At  Honuapo,  Hawaii,  is  the  rock  Kaverohea,  jut- 
ting into  the  sea,  where  at  night  a  murdered  wife 
calls  to  her  jealous  husband,  assuring  him  of  her  love 
and  innocence.  The  voice  is  oftenest  heard  when 
a  great  disaster  is  at  hand  :  war,  storm,  earthquake, 
the  death  of  a  chief,  or  a  season  of  famine. 


THE   THREE   WIVES   OF   LAA 

LAA,  a  young  man  of  distinguished  family,  who 
had  gone  to  Raiatea  in  his  boyhood,  returned 
a  number  of  years  after  to  visit  his  foster-father, 
Moikeha,  then  chief  of  Kauai.  The  boats  that 
were  sent  for  him  were  painted  yellow,  the  royal 
color,  and  Laa  was  invested  in  a  feather  robe  that 
had  cost  a  hundred  people  a  year  of  labor,  and  caused 
the  killing  of  at  least  ten  thousand  birds,  since  the 
mamo  had  but  one  yellow  feather  under  each  wing. 
Hawaiian  millinery  was,  therefore,  as  cruel  a  busi- 
ness as  it  became  in  America  several  centuries  later. 
When  this  favorite  scion  landed  his  path  was  strewn 
with  flowers,  and  the  feasts  in  his  honor  lasted  for  a 
month.  He  had  agreed  to  go  back  to  Raiatea,  for  he 
had  been  accepted  there  as  heir-apparent,  yet  it  was 
thought  a  pity  that  his  line  should  cease  in  his  native 
land  ;  and  while  he  felt  that  for  state  reasons  he  must 
15  225 


Myths  and  Legends 

take  a  Raiatea  woman  for  his  queen, — for  the  people 
there  would  never  consent  to  his  carrying  home  a 
Hawaiian  to  help  rule  over  them, — he  cheerfully 
consented  to  take  a  temporary  wife  daring  his  stay 
in  Kauai.  His  house  and  grounds  were,  therefore, 
decorated,  the  nobility  was  assembled,  musicians  and 
poets  and  dancers  were  engaged,  and  a  great  feast 
was  ordered,  when  a  hitch  arose  over  the  choice  of 
a  bride.  Each  of  the  three  leading  priests  had  a 
marriageable  daughter  of  beauty  and  proud  descent. 
How  were  their  claims  to  be  settled  ?  Easily  enough, 
as  it  fell  out.  Laa  married  all  three  on  the  same  day, 
and  before  his  departure  for  Raiatea  each  wife  on  tne 
same  day  presented  a  son  to  him.  From  these  three 
sons  sprang  the  governing  families  of  Oahu  and 
Kauai. 


THE   MISDOING   OF   KAMAPUA 

WHEN  a  child  was  born  to  Olopana,  a  lord  of 
Oahu,  in  the  twelfth  century,  he  conceived 
a  dislike  to  it,  and  freely  alleged  that  his  brother  was 
its  father.  Such  as  dared  to  speak  ill  of  dignitaries, 
and  there  were  gossips  in  those  days,  as  in  all  other, 
chuckled,  at  safe  distance,  that  if  Olopana's  suspi- 
cions were  correct,  the  boy  should  have  somewhat 
of  his — er — uncle's  good  looks  and  pleasant  manner, 
whereas  he  was  hairy,  ill-favored,  and,  as  his  nature 
disclosed  itself  with  increasing  years,  violent,  thiev- 
ish, treacherous ;  in  short,  he  was  Olopana  at  his 
226 


In  the  Pacific 

worst.  Every  day  added  to  the  bad  feeling  between 
the  boy  and  his  father,  for  when  he  had  grown  old 
enough  to  appreciate  the  position  to  which  he  had 
been  born,  the  youngster  repaid  the  hate  of  his 
parent,  and  strove  to  deserve  it.  Vain  the  attempt 
of  the  mother  to  make  peace  between  them  and 
direct  her  offspring  into  paths  of  rectitude.  In 
contempt,  the  chief  put  the  name  of  Kamapua,  or 
hog-child,  on  the  boy,  and  in  some  of  the  older 
myths  he  actually  figures  as  a  half-monster  with  a 
body  like  that  of  a  man,  but  with  the  head  of  a 
boar. 

Kamapua  gathered  the  reckless  and  incorrigible 
boys  of  the  neighborhood  about  him,  and  the  band 
became  a  terror  by  night,  for  in  the  dark  they  broke 
the  taboo  and  heads  as  well,  stripped  trees  of  their 
fruit,  stole  swine  and  fowls,  staved  in  the  bottoms  of 
canoes,  cut  trees,  and  in  order  to  look  as  bad  as  he 
felt,  the  leader  cropped  his  hair  and  his  beard  (when 
one  came  to  him)  to  the  shortness  of  an  inch,  tat- 
tooed the  upper  half  of  his  body  in  black,  and  wore 
a  hog-skin  over  his  shoulders  with  bristles  outward. 
On  attaining  his  majority  he  left  his  parents,  taking 
with  him  some  of  his  reprobates,  and  set  up  in  life  as  a 
brigand,  making  his  home  in  lonely  defiles  of  the  hills, 
and  subsisting  almost  entirely  by  pillage.  Several 
attempts  were  made  to  catch  him,  and  a  local  legend 
at  Hauula  has  it  that  when  close  pressed  by  an  angry 
crowd  he  turned  himself  into  a  monstrous  hog,  made 
a  bridge  of  himself  across  a  narrow  chasm,  so  that  his 
227 


Myths  and  Legends 

companions  could  run  over  on  his  back,  scrambled 
on  after  them,  and  so  escaped. 

The  neighbors  endured  these  goings-on  until 
Kamapua  had  added  murder  to  his  other  crimes, 
when  they  resolved  that  he  was  no  longer  a  subject 
for  public  patience.  An  army  was  sent  against  him, 
most  of  his  associates  were  killed,  he  was  caught, 
and  was  taken  before  his  father  for  judgment.  Olo- 
pana  sternly  ordered  that  he  be  given  as  a  sacrifice 
to  the  gods.  His  mother  was  in  despair  at  this,  for 
though  he  was  a  most  unworthy  fellow,  a  nuisance, 
a  danger,  still,  he  was  her  son,  and  she  loved  him 
better  than  her  life.  She  bribed  the  priests,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  slay  him,  and  they,  having  smeared 
him  with  chicken-blood,  laid  him  on  the  altar.  The 
eye  that  was  gouged  from  the  body  of  a  victim,  and 
offered  to  the  chief  who  made  the  sacrifice,  was  in 
this  case  the  eye  of  a  pig.  Olopana  did  not  even 
pretend  to  eat  this  relic,  as  he  should  have  done,  to 
follow  custom,  but  flung  it  aside  and  gazed  with  sat- 
isfaction at  the  gory  features  of  the  man  who  was 
shamming  death.  He  had  turned  to  leave  the  temple 
when  Kamapua  leaped  from  the  altar,  picked  up  the 
bone  dagger  with  which  a  feint  had  been  made  of 
cutting  out  his  eye  and  stabbed  his  father  repeatedly 
in  the  back.  At  the  sight  of  a  corpse  butchering 
their  chief  the  people  fled  in  panic,  the  priests, 
awe-struck  at  the  result  of  their  corruption,  hid 
themselves,  and  the  murderer,  so  soon  as  he  was 
sure  that  Olopana  was  dead,  hurried  away,  assembled 
228 


In  the  Pacific 

the  forty  surviving  members  of  his  band,  leaped  into 
his  canoe,  and  left  Oahu  forever. 

He  landed  at  Kauai,  on  the  cliff  of  Kipukai,  and 
remembering  a  well  of  sweet  water  on  its  side,  he 
sought  for  it,  up  and  down,  and  back  and  forth,  for 
he  had  a  raging  thirst.  Two  spirits  of  the  place, 
knowing  him  to  be  evil,  had  concealed  the  spring 
under  a  mass  of  shrubbery  that  he  might  not  pollute 
it ;  but  he  found  it,  and  as  he  drank  he  saw  their 
figures  reflected  in  the  surface,  despite  their  conceal- 
ment in  the  shadow,  and  heard  their  laughter  at  his 
greed  and  his  uncouthness.  That  angered  him.  He 
sprang  up,  chased  them  through  the  wood,  caught 
them,  and  with  a  swing  of  his  great  arms  hurled 
them  to  the  hill  across  the  valley,  where  they  became 
stone  and  are  seen  to  this  day.  So  ill  did  he  behave 
in  Kauai,  assailing  innocent  people  and  destroying 
their  taro  patches,  that  they  determined  to  despatch 
him,  and  in  order  to  have  him  under  their  advantage 
it  was  resolved  to  fence  him  in  near  Hanalei.  The 
wall  of  mountain  now  existing  there  is  the  fence. 
Just  before  it  was  finished  the  prince  in  charge  of 
the  work  sat  to  rest  in  a  gap  which  admits  the 
present  road.  He  heard  a  harsh  laugh,  and  looking 
up  saw  Kamapua  sitting  on  the  top  of  Hoary  Head. 
A  running  fight  ensued,  in  which  the  outlaw  escaped 
across  the  mountain,  and  the  prince,  hurling  his 
spear,  but  missing  his  mark,  sent  the  weapon  through 
the  crest  of  the  peak,  making  the  remarkable  win- 
dow that  is  one  of  the  sights  of  the  island.  And 
229 


Myths  and  Legends 

now,  when  a  cloud  rests  on  this  mountain,  the 
people  say  that  Kamapua  is  sitting  there. 

Some  years  before  this  Pele  and  her  brothers  had 
migrated  from  the  far  southern  islands  and  had  made 
their  home  in  Hawaii,  close  to  the  crater  of  Kilauea, 
— so  close  that  they  were  believed  to  be  under  the 
special  protection  of  the  gods ;  and  from  that  belief 
no  doubt  grew  the  later  faith  that  Pele  and  her  fam- 
ily were  gods  themselves  ;  that  they  lived  in  the  cones 
thrust  up  from  the  floor  of  Kilauea  by  gas  and  steam 
while  it  was  in  a  viscid  state  ;  that  the  music  of  their 
dances  came  up  in  thunder  gusts,  and  that  they  swam 
the  white  surges  of  lava  in  the  hell-pit. 

Having  heard  of  the  beauty  of  this  woman,  Kama- 
pua resolved  to  abduct  her,  and  after  a  visit,  in  which 
the  usual  courtesies  and  hospitalities  were  observed, 
but  which  he  paid  in  order  to  estimate  the  strength 
of  her  following,  he  attacked  the  outlying  huts  of 
the  village  in  the  night  and  killed  their  occupants, 
intending  to  follow  this  assault  by  surrounding 
Pele's  house  and  forcing  the  surrender  of  all  within  ; 
but  hearing  the  outcry  in  the  distance  and  divining 
its  meaning,  she  and  her  brothers  hastily  gathered 
weapons  and  provisions  and  fled  to  a  cave  in  the 
hills  three  miles  away.  There  was  a  sufficient 
spring  in  this  place,  and  the  entrance  was  defended 
by  heavy  blocks.  The  fugitives  could  have  endured 
a  siege  of  a  week  with  little  likelihood  of  loss.  In 
the  morning  a  dog,  following  their  scent,  led  Kama- 
pua to  this  stronghold.  An  attack  costing  several 
2-50 


In  the  Pacific 

lives  on  his  side,  and  making  no  effect  on  those  en- 
trenched within,  convinced  him  that  it  was  useless 
to  expect  success  from  this  method,  so  he  piled  fuel 
against  the  entrance  and  set  it  afire,  hoping  to  suffo- 
cate the  defenders  to  unconsciousness,  when  he  would 
force  his  way  to  the  interior  and  rescue  Pele.  Here 
again  he  failed,  for  a  strong  draft  blowing  from  the 
cave  carried  the  smoke  into  his  own  face.  Then  he 
ordered  a  hole  to  be  cut  in  the  cavern  roof,  for  this 
appeared  to  be  not  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  feet 
thick,  and  being  friable  was  easily  worked  by  the 
stone  drills  and  axes  of  his  men.  The  workers  plied 
their  tools  industriously,  while  Kamapua  shouted 
threats  and  defiance  through  the  chinks  in  the  wall 
before  the  cavern  door. 

His  taunts  were  vain.  While  the  sinking  of  the 
shaft  was  in  progress,  a  strange  new  power  was 
coming  upon  Pele.  The  gods  of  the  earth  and  air 
had  seen  this  assault  and  had  resolved  to  take  her 
part.  The  sky  became  overcast  with  brown,  un- 
wholesome-looking clouds,  the  ground  grew  hot  and 
parched,  vegetation  drooped  and  withered,  birds  flew 
seaward  with  cries  of  distress,  and  a  waiting  still- 
ness fell  upon  the  world.  Kamapua  had  cut  away 
ten  feet  of  rock,  when  the  voice  of  Pele  was  heard 
in  long,  shrill  laughter,  dying  in  far  recesses  of  the 
mountain,  as  if  she  were  flying  through  passages  of 
immense  length.  The  hills  began  to  shake  ;  vast 
roarings  were  heard  ;  a  choking  fume  of  sulphur  filled 
the  air,  dust  rolled  upward,  making  a  darkness  like 
231 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  night ;  then,  with  a  crash  like  the  bursting  of  a 
world,  the  top  of  Kilauea  was  blown  toward  the 
heavens  in  an  upward  shower  of  rock ;  a  fierce  glow 
colored  the  ash-clouds  that  volleyed  from  the  crater, 
and  down  the  valley  came  pouring  a  flood  of  lava,  a 
river  of  white  fire,  crested  with  the  flame  of  burn- 
ing forests,  as  with  foam. 

Kamapua  and  his  bandits  fled,  but  again  he  heard 
the  laughter,  this  time  from  the  crater,  which  Pele 
had  reached  from  within,  and  was  now  mounting, 
free,  vaulting  through  the  clouds,  revelling  in  the 
heat  and  blaze  and  din,  and  hurling  rocks  and  thun- 
derbolts at  the  intruder.  At  the  ocean's  edge  the 
lava  was  still  close  at  his  heels.  Its  heat  blistered 
his  skin.  He  had  no  time  to  reach  his  boats.  With 
his  spear  he  struck  a  mighty  blow  on  the  ground  and 
cracked  the  mountain  to  its  base,  so  that  the  ocean 
flowed  in,  and  a  fearful  fight  of  fire  and  sea  began. 
Steam  shot  for  miles  into  the  air,  with  vast  geysers 
leaping  through  it,  and  the  hiss  and  screech  and  bel- 
low were  appalling.  The  crater  filled  with  water,  so 
that  Pele  and  her  brothers  had  to  drink  it  dry,  lest 
the  fires  should  be  quenched.  When  they  had  done 
this  they  resumed  the  attack  on  Kamapua,  emptying 
the  mountain  of  its  ash  and  molten  rock,  and  hurling 
tons  of  stone  after  the  wretch,  who  was  now  strain- 
ing every  muscle  to  force  his  boat  far  enough  to  sea 
to  insure  his  safety.  He  did  not  retaliate  this  time, 
but  was  glad  to  make  his  escape ;  for  Pele  had  come 
to  her  godhood  at  last. 

232 


In  the  Pacific 

PELE'S   HAIR 

TT^IERCEST,  though  loveliest,  of  all  the  gods  is 
_r  Pele,  she  whose  home  is  in  Kilauea,  greatest 
of  the  world's  volcanoes.  When  this  mountain 
lights  the  heavens,  when  lava  pours  from  its  miles 
of  throat,  when  stone  bombs  are  hurled  at  the  stars, 
when  its  ash-clouds  darken  the  sun  and  moon,  when 
there  are  thunders  beneath  the  earth,  and  the  houses 
shake,  then  does  this  spirit  of  the  peak,  in  robes  of 
fire,  ride  the  hot  blast  and  shriek  in  the  joy  of  de- 
struction,— a  valkyrie  of  the  war  of  nature.  Kana- 
kas try  to  keep  on  the  good  side  of  this  torrid  di- 
vinity by  secret  gifts,  either  of  white  chickens  or 
of  red  ohelo  berries,  and  an  old  man  once  put  into 
a  guide's  hand  the  bones  of  a  child  that  he  might 
throw  them  down  the  inner  crater, — Halemaumau, 
the  House  of  Eternal  Burning,  whose  ruddy  lava 
cones  are  homes  of  the  goddess  and  her  family. 
The  dogs  sacrificed  to  Pele,  when  human  victims 
were  scant,  were  nursed  at  the  breasts  of  slaves,  and 
the  priests  and  virgins  received  as  their  portion, 
after  the  killing,  the  heart  and  liver.  Next  to  her 
eyes,  of  piercing  brightness,  the  most  striking  thing 
in  the  aspect  of  this  deity  is  her  wealth  of  hair, 
silky,  shining  red  in  the  glow,  and  shaken  from  her 
head  in  a  cloud-like  spread  as  of  flame.  When  the 
eruption  is  at  an  end  and  a  sullen  peace  follows  the 
outbreak,  tufts  of  this  hair  are  found  in  hollows  for 
miles  around.  Birds  gather  it  for  their  nests,  and 
233 


Myths  and  Legends 

unfearing  visitors   collect  it  for   cabinets  and   mu- 
seums. 

Science  tells  us  that  Pele's  hair  is  a  molten  glass  ; 
threads  of  pumice :  a  stony  froth.  When  a  mighty 
blast  occurs,  or  when  steam  escapes  through  the 
boiling  mass,  particles  of  pumice  shred  off  in  the 
upward  flight,  or  are  wire-drawn  by  winds  that  rage 
over  the  earth.  These  viscid  threads  cool  quickly 
in  that  chill  altitude,  and  float  down  again.  They 
can  be  artificially  made  by  passing  jets  of  steam 
through  the  slag  of  iron  furnaces  while  it  is  in  a 
melted  state,  the  product,  which  resembles  raw  cot- 
ton, being  used,  in  place  of  asbestos,  for  the  packing 
of  boilers,  steam-pipes,  and  the  like.  To  such  base 
uses  might  the  goddess'  shining  locks  be  put,  if  she 
tore  them  out  in  large  enough  handfuls  during  the 
carnival  of  fire  and  earthquake ;  but  they  are  not 
found  in  quantities  to  justify  this  search  by  commer- 
cial-minded persons,  and  conservative  Kanakas  might 
be  alarmed  by  thought  of  revenges  which  Pele  would 
visit  on  them  should  they  misuse  her  hair  as  the 
foreign  heathen  do. 

THE   PRAYER   TO   PELE 

A  LTHOUGH  Pele  is  the  most  terrible  of  dei- 
<L\.  ties,  she  can  be  kind.  If  a  village  makes 
sacrifices  to  her  she  is  liable  at  any  hour  to  continue 
to  keep  the  peace.  Otherwise,  she  loses  her  temper 
and  pours  out  floods  of  lava  or  showers  of  ashes  on 
234 


In  the  Pacific 

the  neglectful  people,  or  dries  their  springs  and 
wastes  their  farms.  Sacrifices  of  unhappy  beings 
v/erc  made  to  her  whenever  the  volcano  spirits  began 
to  growl,  the  victims  being  bound  and  thrown  into 
the  crater  of  the  threatening  mountain.  Princess 
Kapiolani  was  probably  the  first  native  to  protest 
against  these  sacrifices,  and  in  1824,  after  her  con- 
version to  Christianity,  she  gave  an  instructive  ex- 
hibition by  defying  the  taboo  of  Kilauea,  eating  the 
berries  growing  on  the  sides  of  the  peak,  in  defiance 
of  the  priestly  order,  and  throwing  rocks  contemp- 
tuously into  the  pit. 

Pele  is  the  Venus  of  the  islands,  and  is  of  won- 
drous beauty  when  she  takes  a  human  form,  as  she 
does,  now  and  again,  when  she  falls  in  love  with 
some  Mars  or  Adonis  of  the  native  race,  or  when 
she  intends  to  engage  in  coasting  down  the  slippery 
mountain  sides, — a  sport  of  which  she  is  fond.  As 
always  with  distinguished  company,  you  must  let 
your  competitor  win,  if  you  fancy  that  it  is  Pele  in 
disguise  who  is  your  rival  in  a  toboggan  contest ;  for 
a  chief  of  Puna  having  once  suffered  himself  to  dis- 
tance her,  she  revengefully  emptied  a  sea  of  lava 
from  the  nearest  crater  and  forced  him  to  fly  the 
region.  Many  tales  of  her  amours  survive.  Kame- 
hameha  the  Great  was  among  her  most  favored 
lovers.  It  was  to  help  him  to  a  victory  that  she 
suffocated  a  part  of  the  army  of  his  enemy  with 
steam  and  sulphur  fumes. 

It  fared  less  happily  with  the  debonnair  Prince 
235 


Myths  and  Legends 

Kaululaau  when  he  attempted  force  in  his  wooing. 
He  found  Pele  watching  the  surf-riders  at  Keauhou, 
and  was  ravished  by  her  loveliness.  Her  skirt  glit- 
tered with  crystal,  her  mantle  was  colored  like  a 
rainbow,  bracelets  of  shell  circled  her  wrists  and 
ankles,  her  hair  was  held  in  a  wreath  of  flowers. 
His  admiration  was  not  returned.  She  was  con- 
temptuous toward  him, — one  could  almost  say  cold, 
but  Pele  was.  seldom  that,  for  when  the  young  chief 
approached,  the  earth  about  her  was  blistering  hot 
and  he  was  compelled  to  dance.  With  his  magic 
spear  he  dissipated  her  power  for  a  little  and  low- 
ered the  temperature  she  had  inflamed  the  very  earth 
withal.  So  soon,  however,  as  she  had  regained  her 
freedom,  and  had  passed  beyond  the  influence  of  this 
spear,  she  undertook  to  avenge  herself  by  opening 
the  gates  of  the  mountain  and  letting  loose  a  deluge 
of  lava.  Again  with  his  spear-point  Kaululaau  drew 
lines  on  the  ground,  beyond  which  the  deadly  tor- 
rent could  not  pass,  and  through  the  hot  air,  amid 
the  rain  of  ashes  and  the  belching  of  sulphurous 
steam,  he  regained  his  canoe  and  escaped. 

Only  so  far  back  as  1882  this  goddess  was  peti- 
tioned by  one  of  the  faithful,  and  with  effect.  Mauna 
Loa  was  in  eruption.  A  river  of  lava  twenty-five 
miles  long  was  creeping  down  the  slope  and  was 
threatening  the  town  of  Hilo.  The  people  raised 
walls  and  breaks  of  stone  to  deflect  this  stream  ;  they 
dug  pits  across  its  course  to  check  it,  but  without 
avail.  The  vast  flow  of  melted  rock  kept  on,  light- 
236 


In  the  Pacific 

ing  the  skies,  charring  vegetation  at  a  distance,  and 
filling  the  air  with  an  intolerable  heat.  Princess 
Ruth,  a  descendant  of  Kamenameha,  was  appealed 
to.  She  hated  the  white  race,  and  would  have  seen 
with  little  emotion  the  destruction  of  all  the  Euro- 
pean and  American  intruders  in  Hilo  ;  but  it  was  her 
own  people  who  were  most  in  danger,  so  she  an- 
swered, "  I  will  save  the  Hilo  fish-ponds.  Pele  will 
hear  a  Kamehameha."  A  steamer  was  obtained  for 
her,  and  with  many  attendants  she  sailed  from  Hon- 
olulu to  the  threatened  point.  Climbing  the  slope 
behind  the  village,  she  built  an  altar  close  to  the  ad- 
vancing lava,  cast  offerings  upon  the  glowing  mass, 
and  solemnly  prayed  for  the  salvation  of  Hilo.  That 
night  the  lava  ceased  to  flow.  It  still  forms  a  shining 
bulwark  about  the  menaced  town.  The  princess 
sailed  back  to  Honolulu,  and  the  faithful  asked  the 
Christians  why  the  pagan  divinity  alone  had  answered 
the  many  prayers. 

LOHIAU  AND  THE  VOLCANO  PRINCESS 

WITH  gods,  as  with  men,  who  would  speed 
his  affairs  must  keep  them  in  his  own  hands. 
Pele,  the  volcano  goddess,  fell  in  love  with  Lohiau, 
a  Kauaian  prince,  and  in  human  guise  remained  with 
him  so  long  that  her  sisters  were  afraid  the  Kilauea 
fires  would  go  out.     The  prince  took  an  illness,  and 
appeared  to  die,  ere  the  honeymoon  was  over,  so, 
wrapped  in  cloth  of  bark,  he  was  put  under  guard  to 
237 


Myths  and  Legends 

lie  in  state.  When  Pele  had  gone  back  alone  to  her 
mountain  home  a  longing  came  upon  her  to  feel  the 
young  man's  arms  about  her  once  more  and  hear  the 
words  of  love  he  had  such  a  pretty  talent  for  telling. 
But,  instead  of  going  herself,  she  sent  her  sister  Hiika 
to  rescue  his  soul  and  bring  it  to  her.  This  was  a 
mistake,  for  the  sister  was  not  a  serious  creature. 
Stopping  to  brave  the  devils  and  giant  lizards  of  the 
woods,  turning  the  boards  of  surf-riders  to  stone 
for  a  prank,  and  scaring  a  fisherman  by  causing  him 
to  pull  a  human  head  out  of  the  sea,  the  sister  next 
found  a  half-released  spirit  hovering  near  a  dying 
chief.  She  tied  it  in  a  corner  of  her  skirt  and 
slapped  the  skirt  against  a  rock,  so  the  chief  finished 
his  dying  promptly.  In  Kauai,  at  last,  her  search 
was  rewarded.  She  saw  the  ghost  of  Lohiau  beck- 
oning from  a  cave,  in  which  it  had  been  imprisoned 
by  demons,  who  fled,  hissing,  on  her  approach.  She 
broke  the  bars  of  moonbeam  that  confined  it,  tied  it 
in  her  skirt,  carried  it  to  its  body,  restored  the  prince 
to  life,  then  led  him  to  Hawaii  and  with  him  scaled 
the  mountain  where  Pele  was  waiting  in  great  dud- 
geon. For  Hiika  had  been  gone  so  long  on  this 
journey  that  a  wrong  construction  had  been  put  on 
her  delay.  Lohiau  and  Hiika  had,  indeed,  learned 
to  esteem  each  other,  but  they  had  not  violated  the 
trust  imposed  in  them  by  the  goddess. 

Pele  was  madly  jealous,  however.      She  turned 
the  prince  to  stone  on  the  crater  brink, — the  poor 
fellow  was  growing  used  to  dying  now, — and,  dis- 
238 


In  the  Pacific 

mayed  by  this  act  of  cruelty,  Hiika  descended 
through  the  five  spheres  to  the  dark  underworld 
where  the  spirits  lived.  She  hoped  that  the  young 
man's  ghost  would  follow  her,  for  pity  in  his  suffer- 
ings had  fast  increased  to  love.  As  the  spirit  did 
not  come,  she  returned  to  the  surface  of  the  earth 
and  went  on  a  voyage  of  search  in  a  boat  that  a  god 
had  lent  to  her, — a  boat  of  cowrie  shell,  which  in 
overland  travel  would  shrink  so  that  it  could  be  car- 
ried in  the  hand  ;  then,  at  the  word,  would  swell  to 
a  stately  barge  of  pearl  with  ivory  masts  and  sails  as 
white  as  the  snow  on  the  mountain.  This  vessel 
moved  with  the  speed  of  the  wind  in  any  direction 
the  occupant  indicated  by  pointing  the  finger.  The 
prince's  wandering  spirit  was  found  in  Kauai,  its  old 
home ;  was  taken  by  a  messenger  to  the  stone  image 
on  the  crater,  and  put  back  into  the  body,  and  the 
prince  lived  again.  Pele  was  by  this  time  in  a  soft  and 
repentant  humor.  She  asked  forgiveness  of  Lohiau 
and  bade  him  love  and  wed  her  sister,  who  was  good, 
and  had  earned  his  love.  This  Lohiau  did,  where- 
upon Pele  restored  to  life  several  of  Hiika' s  friends 
whom,  also,  in  her  first  anger,  she  had  turned  to 
statues  of  lava. 

A   VISIT   OF   PELE 

WHILE  a  great  storm  was  raging  over  Hawaii 
a  boy  was  born  to  a  woman  chief  in  the 
camp  of   King    Alapai.      At  once   the  soothsayers 
proclaimed  him  as  the  man  of  prophecy  who  should 
239 


Myths  and  Legends 

conquer  the  eight  islands  and  end  their  strifes.  It 
seemed  as  if  for  once — or  oftener — the  kahunas 
were  wrong,  for  the  babe  disappeared  that  very 
night.  There  were  rumors  of  foul  play ;  rumors 
that  Alapai  had  killed  him,  that  he  might  not  stand 
in  the  way  of  his  own  progeny,  for  this  barbarian 
Macbeth  would  have  no  Banquo  to  intercept  his  line 
or  wrest  the  crown  from  him.  It  was  five  years 
before  the  fate  of  the  child  was  known.  He  was 
not  dead  :  Naole,  a  chief,  had  kidnapped  him  that 
the  prophecy  might  come  to  pass.  When  the  king 
heard  of  this  he  commanded  that  the  boy  be  placed 
at  court,  where  he  might  learn  manners  and  the 
laws,  and  be  kept  under  the  eyes  of  the  great ;  but, 
doubting  his  master's  motive,  Naole  did  not  send  the 
child ;  he  sent  another  of  the  same  age,  who  was  to 
cut  no  figure  in  the  history  of  the  islands,  not  being 
the  favored  of  the  gods. 

The  real  prince  was  kept  in  so  secluded  a  place 
and  the  secret  of  his  parentage  so  well  preserved  — 
it  was  prophecy  that  he  should  be  fathered  of  three 
kings — that  he  had  reached  the  age  of  twenty  before 
Naole  deemed  it  safe  to  let  him  mingle  with  the 
multitude.  He  then  made  it  known  that  the  young 
man  was  Kamehameha.  By  this  time  King  Alapai 
was  dead,  or  helpless  with  age ;  but  the  prince, 
albeit  liberal  and  just,  was  rough,  strong,  dictatorial, 
a  natural  military  leader,  and  he  did  not  lack  ene- 
mies. Worst  among  these  was  his  uncle,  Pepehi, 
an  elderly  chief,  who  had  read  omens  in  the  entrails 
240 


In  the  Pacific 

of  sacrifice  warning  him  to  be  discreet  and  guarded 
in  his  life  or  it  would  be  taken  from  him  by  one  re- 
lated to  him,  and  of  greater  power.  He  could  not 
brook  the  thought  of  Kamehameha's  ascendency,  for 
he  was  a  man  used  to  deference,  a  man  of  weight 
and  dignity,  while  this  new-found  prince  was  a  boor. 
He  therefore  made  himself  unpleasant  by  criticisms 
and  carpings,  by  false  interpretations  of  signs,  by 
implications  against  his  nephew,  and  finding  that  the 
young  man  did  not  retaliate,  he  resolved  to  have  his 
life. 

Pretending  anger  with  Kamehameha  because  he 
would  not  study  for  the  priesthood  and  succeed  to 
his  honors,  the  soothsayer  dinned  a  tirade  into  his 
ears  in'the  temple  ground,  hoping  to  receive  a  blow, 
that  he  might  stab,  in  return,  for  he  wished  the  kill- 
ing to  appear  as  if  done  in  self-defence.  Stung  by 
his  insolence,  Kamehameha  did  knock  him  down  :  a 
good,  stout  blow,  well  won.  So  soon  as  he  had 
recovered  his  wits  and  got  upon  his  feet  the  priest 
plucked  out  his  long  bone  knife  and  made  a  stroke, 
but  the  priestess  of  the  temple,  her  eyes  blazing  with 
anger  at  this  trespass,  caught  his  wrist  and  cried, 
"  Down  to  your  knees  !  Ask  pardon  of  your  future 
king  and  mercy  of  the  gods." 

At  that  instant  came  a  rush  of  wings  and  a  blaze 
of  light  filling  the  temple  space.  All  fell  to  the 
earth,  for  they  had  recognized  the  tall  form  before 
them  with  the  coronet  of  vari-colored  sparks  bound 
on  the  golden  hair  that  swept  around  it  like  a  cloud 
16  241 


Myths  and  Legends 

of  glory,  and  the  robe  of  tissue  that  was  like  flame 
of  silver  whiteness*     It  was  the  volcano  goddess. 

"  Peace  !"  she  commanded.  "  This  boy  is  in  the 
charge  of  Pele.  Let  no  hand  be  lifted  against  him. 
No  knife,  no  art,  no  poison,  and  no  spell  shall  shorten 
his  life.  He  will  be  your  greatest  king  :  your  best. 
He  will  put  an  end  to  these  wretched  wars  between 
your  families,  and  prepare  for  the  day  when  a  pale 
race  will  come  to  these  lands,  making  them  a  step  in 
their  conquering  march  around  the  world.  As  for 
you,  Pepehi,  speak  another  word  against  those  I 
love,  lift  a  hand  against  them,  and  I  turn  you  to  a 
cinder.  Aloha !"  She  had  vanished  like  flame. 
Kamehameha,  on  this  revelation  of  his  destiny, 
sprang  to  his  feet.  His  breath  was  quick  and  strong, 
a  smile  was  on  his  lips,  and  he  looked  into  the  dis- 
tance with  lifted  face  and  flashing  eye,  as  if  a  glo- 
rious vision  had  arisen  there.  A  touch  on  his  foot 
brought  him  to  himself.  Pepehi  was  grovelling  be- 
fore him,  baring  his  breast  and  offering  to  Kameha- 
meha the  poisoned  dagger  he  had  but  a  few  moments 
before  aimed  at  the  young  king's  heart.  Lifting 
him  from  the  ground,  Kamehameha  comforted  the 
priest  with  a  few  words  and  sent  him  homeward 
with  bowed  head  and  dragging  step. 


242 


In  the  Pacific 

THE   GREAT   FAMINE 

HUA,  the  licentious  king  of  Maui, — who  kept 
a  hundred  hula  dancers,  was  drunk  for  days 
together  on  awa,  and  spared  no  wife  or  daughter  of 
a  friend  or  subject  if  she  took  his  fancy, — had  been 
chafing  under  the  restraints  imposed  or  attempted  by 
his  high  priest,  a  blameless  man  whose  age  and  long 
service  should  have  gained  even  a  king's  considera- 
tion. It  was  approaching  a  new-year  feast  (the  end 
of  December),  toward  the  close  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, and  Hua  had  made  such  levies  on  his  people 
for  useless  wars  and  wasteful  orgies  that  the  old  man 
was  moved  to  protest.  Hua  paid  no  attention  to  him, 
but  loudly  ordered  his  hunters  to  go  to  the  moun- 
tains and  bring  him  some  water-birds  for  his  table. 

"Those  birds  can  be  found  only  by  the  sea," 
ventured  the  priest. 

"  You  countermand  my  orders,  do  you  ?"  roared 
the  monarch. 

"  I  gave  no  order,"  protested  the  venerable  man. 

"  Hark  you,"  insisted  the  king.  "  My  men  are 
going  to  the  mountain.  If  they  find  the  birds  there 
— and  they  will — you  shall  be  slain  as  a  rebel  and  a 
false  prophet." 

Seeing  that  his  master  desired  his  death,  the  priest 
bowed  and  made  no  answer.  He  went  to  his  sons, 
who  were  studying  for  the  priesthood,  prevailed  on 
them  to  fly  to  Mount  Haleakala,  and  probably  hoped 
to  follow  them,  but  being  slow  and  lame  with  years, 
243 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  hunters  had  returned  before  he  could  escape. 
They  bore  their  prey,  the  water-birds,  and  said  they 
had  found  them  inland.  Knowing  this  to  be  a  lie, 
told  by  the  king's  command,  the  priest  said,  "  These 
birds  came  from  the  sea.  You  'can  smell  it  upon 
them.  Look."  And  he  cut  open  two  or  three  of 
their  bodies.  "  Here  are  little  fish  and  bits  of  sea- 
weed they  have  eaten  within  the  hour." 

Enraged  at  the  discovery  of  his  paltry  subterfuge, 
the  king  caught  up  a  spear  and  thrust  it  into  the  old 
man's  heart.  Though  everything  is  permitted  to  a 
king,  the  people  could  not  repress  a  groan  of  horror, 
and  one  by  one  they  stole  away  from  the  spot,  fear- 
ful of  what  might  follow  this  sacrilege.  Well  might 
they  fear.  The  body  of  the  priest  had  barely  reached 
the  wooden  cross  that  marked  the  temple-ground  as 
sacred  when  its  bearers  dropped  it  upon  the  earth 
and  fled,  for  a  sudden  fever  smote  the  ground ;  hot, 
stifling  winds  began  to  blow  ;  the  images  of  the  gods 
wailed  and  moaned  ;  the  sky  was  red  and  dripped 
blood,  and  the  altar  that  was  to  have  received  the 
body  sank  through  the  rock,  leaving  a  hole  from 
which  gushed  steam  and  dust.  At  that  hour  every 
well,  brook,  and  spring  in  the  island  went  dry,  save 
a  rill  in  a  cave  back  of  Hana  that  the  gods  devoted 
to  the  daughter-in-law  of  the  murdered  priest  and  to 
the  old  woman  who  attended  her,  while  a  nightly 
dew  fell  thereafter  about  the  sons  of  the  dead  man, 
providing  drink  to  them  and  encouraging  a  growth 
of  fruit  and  taro  sufficient  for  their  needs. 
244 


In  the  Pacific 

In  a  day  or  two  the  people  were  desperate.  Their 
crops  were  withering,  the  forests  shedding  their 
leaves.  Some  men  killed  their  neighbors  and  drank 
their  blood  ;  others  drank  from  the  ocean  and  their 
increased  thirst  drove  them  mad  ;  a  few  took  poison  ; 
several  offered  themselves  as  sacrifices  and  were  forth- 
with killed  on  the  altars;  but  in  vain.  Prayer  and 
offering  were  unheeded.  The  wickedness  of  the 
people  in  submitting  to  a  king  like  Hua  had  brought 
its  punishment.  Frightened,  repentant,  maybe,  Hua 
himself  fled  to  Hawaii,  and  his  retainers  scattered 
themselves  in  Molokai,  Oahu,  and  Kauai.  They 
could  not  escape  the  curse.  Like  the  Wandering 
Jew,  they  carried  disaster  with  them.  Blight,  drouth, 
thirst,  and  famine  appeared  wherever  they  set  foot, 
and  though  the  wicked  king  kept  himself  alive  for 
three  and  a  half  years,  he  succumbed  to  hunger  and 
thirst  at  last,  and  in  Kohala  his  withered  frame 
ceased  to  be  animate.  To  this  day  "  the  rattle  of 
Hua's  bones  in  the  sun"  afford  a  simile  in  common 
speech.  And  the  wrath  of  the  gods  was  heavy,  so 
that  the  people  died  by  thousands. 

Hua  being  dead,  the  survivors  looked  anxiously 
for  a  return  of  rain  and  of  life  to  the  islands,  and 
many  turned  to  Naula,  of  Oahu,  imploring  him  to 
intercede  with  the  gods  in  their  behalf.  This  priest 
was  of  great  age,  and  was  reverenced  and  feared. 
He  could  command  the  spirits  of  the  living,  as  well 
as  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  talk  with  them,  far 
from  the  place  where  their  bodies  lay  in  trance.  He 
245 


Myths  and  Legends 

had  descended  into  hell,  had  risen  to  paradise,  and 
had  brought  back  from  the  region  of  the  blessed  a 
calabash  of  the  water  of  life.  The  animals  knew 
and  obeyed  him  so  well  that  when  he  journeyed  to 
Kauai  and  his  canoe  capsized,  a  whale  swallowed  him 
and  vomited  him  forth  on  the  beach  at  the  very  spot 
where  he  had  intended  to  land,  while  at  another 
time  two  sharks  towed  his  vessel  against  a  head  wind 
with  such  speed  that  the  sea  fowl  could  hardly  keep 
him  in  sight.  Clearing  his  eye  by  a  fast  and  prayer, 
he  climbed  to  the  topmost  height  of  the  Waianae 
Mountains  and  closely  scanned  the  horizon.  The 
earth  was  as  brick,  and  the  sky  as  brass,  and  the  sea 
as  silver,  save  in  one  quarter :  a  tiny  blur  on  the  uni- 
versal glare  could  be  seen,  he  fancied,  over  Maui. 
He  would  wait,  in  order  to  be  sure.  Yes,  in  the 
morning  the  vapor  was  still  there. 

"  The  sons  of  the  murdered  priest  are  in  Maui.  I 
will  go  to  them,"  he  said,  and  descending  to  the  shore 
he  entered  his  canoe  alone,  with  neither  oar  nor  sail, 
yet  in  the  dawn  he  was  at  Maui,  and  the  cloud  was 
now  plainly  seen  waving  about  the  great  peak  of 
Hanaula.  From  their  eyrie  on  the  mountain  the 
two  young  men  had  seen  the  approach  of  Naula,  for 
his  boat  shone  in  the  dark  with  a  moon-like  radiance. 
They  knew  that  it  bore  some  message  for  them,  and 
when  the  old  man  arrived  at  Makena  landing  they 
were  there  to  meet  him.  His  white  beard  swept 
the  earth  as  he  bowed,  and  they  bent  low  while 
waiting  for  him  to  speak.  "  You  are  the  sons  of 
246 


In  the  Pacific 

the  most  worthy  priest  who  was  slain  by  Hua,"  he 
said.  "  That  evil  man  has  expiated  his  crime,  and 
his  bones  lie  unburied  in  the  light.  The  people 
suffer  and  die.  The  punishment  for  Hua's  crime 
has  been  severe  and  long.  Let  us  join  our  prayers 
to  the  gods  that  they  may  turn  to  mercy.  I  am 
Naula." 

The  elder  of  the  sons  replied,  "  Great  priest,  we 
will  gladly  pray  with  you  for  our  people,  but  first 
tell  me  of  my  wife.  Is  she  alive  ?" 

The  old  man  wrapped  his  head  in  his  cloak  and 
put  against  his  forehead  an  amulet  of  stone.  After 
some  moments  of  silence  he  flung  off  the  covering 
and  spoke,  "  She  lives,  and  is  well.  The  gods  have 
cared  for  her  in  the  valley  back  of  Hana." 

This  announcement  carried  joy  to  the  heart  of 
the  questioner,  and  he  began  at  once  the  erection  of 
an  altar,  the  aged  priest  sprinkling  it  with  blessed 
water  and  placing  beside  it  the  phallic  symbol  of  the 
trinity.  The  invocation  was  over,  but  no  living 
creature  appeared  in  the  desert  to  serve  as  a  sacrifice. 
A  rustling  was  heard  among  the  dead  bushes  and 
the  snout  of  a  black  hog  was  thrust  out.  Before  it 
could  escape  they  had  seized  the  creature,  with  a 
cry  of  joy,  lifted  it  to  the  altar,  stabbed  it  again  and 
again,  and  its  blood  flowed  over  the  stones.  Then 
all  bent  about  it  and  prayed  with  fervor.  As  they 
prayed  their  shadows  grew  fainter,  and  the  hot  wind 
lulled.  A  low  rumble  was  heard  in  the  south. 
They  looked  up.  The  heavens  were  darkening. 
247 


Myths  and  Legends 

The  rain  was  coming.  "  Praise  the  gods,  who  are 
merciful  and  who  receive  our  sacrifice  !"  the  priests 
cried.  And  with  that  immolation  the  days  of  suf- 
fering were  over. 


KIHA'S   TRUMPET 

WAIPIO,  in  Hawaii,  is  claimed  by  people  who 
live  thereabout  to  be  the  loveliest  valley 
on  the  island.  It  was  a  low  and  marshy  stretch 
until  a  great  fish  that  lived  there  begged  the  god 
Kane  to  give  him  sweeter  water  and  more  of  it. 
Kane  therefore  tumbled  rocks  across  the  stream,  so 
as  to  dam  it  into  wide  pools,  and  also  opened  new 
springs  at  the  source.  The  marks  of  his  great  hands 
are  still  seen  on  the  stone.  In  this  valley,  now  so 
peaceful  and  so  rich  in  charm,  lived  Kiha,  king  of 
Hawaii,  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
a  great  and  dreaded  monarch.  Of  all  his  possessions 
he  valued  none  more  highly  than  his  war-trumpet,  a 
large  shell  adorned  with  the  teeth  of  chiefs  who  had 
been  killed  in  war.  The  roar  of  this  instrument 
could  be  heard  for  ten  miles,  for  it  was  a  magic 
shell,  and  when  blown  in  battle  it  reproduced  the 
cries  of  victory  and  shrieks  of  the  dying ;  when 
blown  to  summon  the  people  it  was  like  the  gale  in 
the  forest,  and  when  it  called  a  sea-god  to  listen  to 
a  prayer  it  was  like  surges  thundering  against  the 
cliffs. 

That  day  was  long  remembered  when  the  horn 
248 


In  the  Pacific 

was  stolen.  It  had  been  taken  from  its  wrapping 
and  its  box,  and  a  hideous  mask  of  stone  had  been 
found  in  its  place.  Search  availed  nothing,  and  the 
only  comfort  that  the  priests  could  offer  was  a  prom- 
ise of  restoration  by  a  being  without  cloak  or  hands, 
when  a  cocoa  palm,  to  be  planted  by  the  king  at  the 
next  full  moon,  should  bear  fruit.  The  tree  was 
planted,  but  seven  years  passed  before  the  nuts  ap- 
peared. These  were  eaten  by  the  king,  and  on  that 
very  night  a  strange  man  was  arrested  on  a  charge 
of  thieving  and  taken  before  the  king  for  sentence. 
All  through  the  questioning  a  dog  with  one  white 
eye  and  a  green  one  kept  close  beside  the  prisoner, 
appearing  to  understand  every  word  that  was  spoken. 
The  intelligence  of  this  animal  was  so  remarkable  as 
to  divert  all  thought  of  punishment  for  the  time,  and 
when  the  robber  had  given  instances  of  the  creature's 
more  than  human  cleverness,  Kiha  realized  suddenly 
that  this  was  the  agency  whereby  the  magic  horn 
was  to  be  restored  to  him. 

If  the  dog  could  find  and  restore  that  shell  the 
captive  should  not  merely  be  set  free,  but  should  be 
fed  at  the  royal  table  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  On 
hearing  this  promise,  the  dog,  who  had  been  watch- 
ing the  king  so  fixedly  out  of  his  green  eye  as  to 
make  his  Majesty  uncomfortable,  sprang  up  with  a 
joyous  bark,  and  capered  about  with  every  token  of 
enthusiasm  for  the  task  that  was  to  be  put  upon 
him. 

At  the  time  when  the  trumpet  disappeared  from 
249 


Myths  and  Legends 

Kiha's  house  a  band  of  mountebanks  and  thieves  dis- 
appeared from  Hawaii.  They  had  camped  in  the 
woods  above  Waipio,  and  had  been  stealing  pigs, 
fowls,  fruit,  and  taro  from  the  farmers,  and  had  occa- 
sionally visited  the  settlements  to  show  their  skill  in 
juggling  and  hanky-panky,  hoping  to  earn  as  a  re- 
ward some  drinks  of  the  native  beer,  and  perhaps  a 
weapon  or  a  strip  of  cloth.  It  was  the  chief  of  this 
band  who  had  stolen  the  trumpet.  He  had  learned 
its  history, — how  the  god  Lono  had  blown  it  on  the 
top  of  Mauna  Kea  until  trees  were  uprooted  in  the 
blast  that  came  from  it,  until  the  fires  kindled  in  the 
crater  below  and  threw  a  red  light  against  the  stars, 
until  the  earth  shook  and  the  sea  heaved  like  a  mon- 
ster sighing.  It  had  the  voice  of  a  god  from  that 
hour,  and  other  gods  obeyed  it.  The  band  fled  to 
Oahu  with  the  prize  and  there  led  a  graceless  life 
until  the  populace  drove  them  out,  and  they  returned 
to  Hawaii. 

The  arrival  of  these  suspicious  characters  had 
been  reported  to  the  king,  and  he  suggested  that  the 
dog  seek  the  shell  in  their  camp  at  the  head  of  the 
valley.  No  sooner  was  the  suggestion  made  than 
the  animal  rushed  away  in  that  direction  with  the 
speed  of  the  wind.  Some  hours  passed,  and  the 
night  was  wearing  on  wearily,  when  a  tremendous 
burst  of  sound  issued  from  the  hills,  echoing  far  and 
wide.  The  king  leaped  to  his  feet,  the  men  of  his 
village  roused  and  grasped  their  spears,  for  this  was 
the  call  to  arms, — the  first  time  they  had  heard  it  in 
250 


In  the  Pacific 

seven  years.  But  who  was  blowing  it  ?  Nearer 
and  nearer  came  the  sky-shaking  peal,  and  presently 
the  dog,  bearing  the  magic  shell  in  his  mouth,  ran 
in,  sank  at  his  master's  feet,  gasped,  shook,  stiffened. 
He  was  dead  from  exhaustion. 

His  master,  overcome  with  grief  for  the  loss  of 
his  little  friend,  was  liberated  at  once;  then,  confi- 
dent that  the  returned  thieves  had  had  the  trumpet 
in  their  possession,  the  king  led  his  forces  against 
them  without  waiting  for  the  sun  to  rise,  and  slew 
nearly  all.  From  one  or  two  survivors  of  the  band 
he  learned  that  their  captain  had  offended  them  by 
his  arrogance  and  selfishness  until  they  were  forced 
to  reduce  him  to  their  own  state  by  silencing  the 
instrument  whereby  he  called  to  the  gods  and  gained 
their  help.  During  one  of  his  drunken  sprees  they 
carried  the  shell  to  a  wizard,  who  put  a  secret  taboo 
mark  on  its  lip,  and  when  the  pirate  blew  it,  on  re- 
gaining his  wits,  it  made  only  a  low,  dull  moaning. 
Try  as  he  would,  he  could  never  restore  it.  It  was 
chiefly  to  propitiate  the  gods  and  give  its  notes  back 
to  the  trumpet  that  he  had  returned  to  Hawaii. 

When  the  dog  seized  the  shell,  as  it  lay  on  the  earth 
near  the  sleeping  chief,  he  bit  off  the  edge  that  had 
been  marked  by  the  wizard  and  instantly  its  voice 
came  back.  The  wind  blown  into  it  long  before 
by  the  robber  chief  was  now  liberated  in  quantities 
in  those  tremendous  blasts  that  had  roused  the  king 
and  his  people  and  appalled  the  robbers.  In  this 
respect  it  resembled  the  post-horn  of  Baron  Mun- 
251 


Myths  and  Legends 

chausen's  story,  which,  on  being  hung  before  a  fire, 
allowed  the  notes  that  had  been  played  into  it  (but 
not  heard)  to  thaw  out  and  entertain  the  company. 
And  if  the  story  of  the  shell  is  doubted,  one  has 
only  to  look  at  it  in  the  Honolulu  Museum  to  be 
convinced. 

HOW   MOIKEHA   GAINED   A   WIFE 

PUNA,  lord  of  Kauai,  was  a  well-beloved  and 
merciful  man.  Though  he  would  not  brook 
insolence,  he  was  always  ready  to  pardon  a  fisher- 
man or  servant  who,  in  ignorance  of  his  personality, 
broke  the  taboo  by  stepping  on  his  shadow.  His 
love  for  Hooipo,  his  daughter,  was  so  strong  that  he 
delayed  her  marriage  until  the  gallants  began  to  com- 
plain, and  the  girl  herself  became  uneasy,  lest  her 
charms  should  expand  to  a  maturity  that  might  hurt 
her  matrimonial  chances.  As  she  had  no  preference, 
however,  she  agreed  that  her  father  might  name  the 
happy  man.  He,  loth  to  incur  the  enmity  of  any  at 
his  court,  resolved  to  offer  her  as  a  prize,  and  the 
fairest  contest  seemed  in  his  mind  to  be  a  run  to 
Kaula  and  back,  each  contestant  to  be  allowed  to  use 
sail  and  carry  four  oarsmen,  and  the  winner  of  the 
race  to  marry  Hooipo. 

A  couple  of  days  before  the  race  was  undertaken 
there  arrived  at  Kauai  a  sturdy  mariner,  one  Moi- 
keha,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  voyage  to  Rai- 
atea,  two  thousand  five  hundred  miles  to  the  south- 
ward. Long  trips  of  this  sort  were  not  unusual 
252 


In  the  Pacific 

among  the  adventurous  islanders,  and  there  is  a  tra- 
dition that  one  of  them  brought  to  Hawaii  two 
white  men  who  became  priests,  and  on  a  later  ex- 
ploration secured  four  "  foreigners  of  large  stature, 
bright,  staring,  roguish  eyes,  and  reddish  faces,"  who 
may  have  been  American  Indians.  Moikeha  became 
the  guest  of  Puna.  He  had  not  been  long  in  the 
daughter's  company  before  Hooipo  regretted  the 
arrangement  for  a  race,  for  she  had  found  a  man 
whom  she  could  love.  It  was  too  late  to  argue  with 
the  candidates  ;  there  could  be  no  hope  of  peace  if 
the  princess  were  withdrawn  as  an  object  of  compe- 
tition and  thrown  at  the  head  of  this  stranger.  By 
general  consent  he  was  allowed  to  take  part  in  the 
race,  provided  he  could  cite  an  honorable  parentage. 
This  he  did,  for  he  was  the  son  of  a  former  chief 
in  Oahu,  and  he  rattled  off  the  names  of  his  ances- 
tors for  sixteen  generations,  ending  the  catalogue  in 
this  fashion,  "  Maweke  and  Niolaukea,  husband  and 
wife  ;  Mulilealii  and  Wehelani,  husband  and  wife  ; 
Moikeha  and  Hooipo,  husband  and  wife."  This 
little  joke,  his  assumption  that  the  girl  was  already 
his,  made  everybody  laugh  and  put  the  company  in 
good  humor. 

At  the  word  of  command  a  score  or  more  of  lusty 
fellows  pushed  their  boats  through  the  surf,  hoisted 
sail,  and  pointed  their  prows  for  Kaula,  fifty  miles 
away.  Moikeha  alone  showed  no  haste.  He  bade 
a  cheerful  farewell  to  his  host  and  the  pretty  daugh- 
ter, marked  with  delight  her  serious  look  as  he  took 
253 


Myths  and  Legends 

his  leave,  then,  with  a  single  attendant  and  the  small- 
est boat  in  the  fleet,  he  set  off  across  the  blue  water. 
Directly  that  her  sail  was  up  the  little  craft  sprang 
through  the  sea  as  if  blown  by  a  hurricane,  while 
the  other  boats  slid  over  the  glassy  waves  under  the 
push  of  oars.  "  It  is  the  fish-god,  Apukohai,  who 
drags  his  canoe,"  declared  the  rowers,  as  he  passed. 
In  twenty-four  hours  he  was  at  the  side  of  Kooipo 
with  the  whale-tooth,  proof  of  his  voyage,  that  was 
delivered  to  him  at  Kaula  by  a  servant  who  had  been 
sent  there  with  it  in  advance.  He  was  easily  the 
victor,  the  other  contestants  arriving  from  one  to 
three  days  later.  No  objection  being  offered,  the 
couple  were  married  with  rejoicings,  and  on  the 
death  of  Puna  the  husband  became  chief,  and  mar- 
ried off  eight  or  ten  youngsters  of  his  own.  Not  for 
a  long  time  was  it  known  that  in  the  race  for  a  wife 
his  lone  but  potent  companion  was  Laamaomao,  the 
wind-god,  who,  loosing  favorable  breezes  from  his 
magic  calabash,  that  blew  whither  he  listed,  carried 
him  swiftly  past  all  other  competitors. 

THE  SAILING   OF   PAAO 

PAAO,  who  afterward  became  a  high  priest  in 
Hawaii,  migrated  thither  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury from  Samoa,  after  a  quarrel  with  his  brother, 
Lonopele.     Both  of  these  men  were  wizards,  and 
were  persons  of  riches  and  influence.    It  came  about 
that  Lonopele  had  missed  a  quantity  of  his  choicest 
254 


In  the  Pacific 

fruit,  which  was  conveyed  away  at  night,  and  al- 
though he  could  see  visions  and  tell  fortunes  for 
others,  he  could  not  reveal  for  his  own  satisfaction 
so  simple  a  matter  as  the  source  of  these  disappear- 
ances. In  a  foolish  rage  he  accused  his  nephew,  the 
son  of  Paao.  Paao  was  indignant,  but,  with  even 
greater  foolishness,  he  killed  his  son,  in  order  to 
open  the  boy's  stomach  and  prove  that  there  was  no 
fruit  in  it.  This  act  so  rankled  in  his  mind  that  he 
decided  to  leave  the  country  and  forget  it,  and  to 
that  end  he  built  several  strong  canoes  and  stored 
them  well  with  food  and  water. 

Before  sailing,  Paao  revenged  himself  for  his  own 
folly  by  killing  a  son  of  Lonopele.  The  latter  dis- 
covered the  murder  too  late  to  retaliate  with  weapons, 
so  he  summoned  the  powers  of  magic  to  his  aid.  He 
sent  a  hurricane  in  chase  of  the  receding  boats,  but 
a  great  fish  pushed  them  on,  despite  the  wind,  which 
was  against  them,  while  another  friendly  monster  of 
the  sea  swam  around  and  around  the  little  fleet,  break- 
ing the  force  of  the  waves.  Lonopele  then  sent  a 
colossal  bird  to  vomit  over  the  canoes  and  sink  them, 
but  mats  were  put  up  in  tent-form  as  protections,  and 
this  project  also  failed. 

Paao  landed  in  Hawaii  with  about  forty  followers, 
one  of  whom  was  a  powerful  prophet.  As  the  canoes 
were  setting  off,  several  would-be  wizards  begged  to 
be  taken  to  the  new  land.  Paao  called  to  them  to 
leap  into  the  sea,  if  they  trusted  their  own  powers, 
and  he  would  take  them  on  board.  All  who  jumped 
255 


Myths  and  Legends 

were  killed  by  striking  on  rocks  or  by  drowning, — 
all  but  the  real  prophet,  who  did  not  leave  the  shore 
till  the  boats  were  a  mile  or  so  away  from  land. 
Paao  answered  his  thunderous  hail  by  an  equally 
thunderous  refusal  to  return,  as  to  go  back  after 
starting  was  bad  luck,  but  added,  "  There  is  room 
for  you,  if  you  will  fly  to  us."  Putting  all  his 
strength  into  his  arms  and  legs,  the  prophet  swam 
through  the  air  and  reached  the  boats  without  in- 
jury. 

The  real  Paao  is  said  to  have  been  a  Spanish 
priest  who  was  cast  away  on  the  islands  by  the  wreck 
of  the  galleon  Santo  lago  in  1527.  The  ship 
was  bound  from  Acapulco  to  Manila  with  shrines 
and  images.  The  priest  grafted  Christian  practices 
on  the  native  religion,  abolished  sacrifice,  and  begat 
a  line  of  chiefs. 


THE   WRONGED    WIFE 

IN  1530,  or  thereabout,  a  Spanish  ship  from  Mo- 
lucca was  driven  across  the  Pacific  and  flung, 
in  a  dismantled  condition,  on  the  Keei  Reefs,  Ha- 
waii. Only  the  captain  and  his  sister  were  rescued. 
Until  it  was  discovered  that  these  strangers  required 
food  and  sleep,  like  themselves,  the  natives  wor- 
shipped them  as  gods.  They  were  hardly  less  wel- 
come when  it  was  found  that  they  were  human,  and 
they  married  among  the  islanders.  The  woman's 
grandchild,  Kaikilani,  was  reputed  to  be  the  most 
256 


In  the  Pacific 

beautiful  woman  ever  born  in  Hawaii.  Kaikilani 
became  the  wife  of  the  heir-apparent,  who  cared  so 
little  for  government,  however,  that  the  young  wo- 
man was  made  chief.  Her  marriage  to  this  easy- 
going, ambitionless,  though  generous  prince  had  been 
a  failure.  As  it  was  a  state  marriage,  she  cared  little 
for  him.  His  stalwart  brother,  Lono,  was  the  object 
of  her  love  and  admiration.  When  the  people 
resolved  that  Lono  should  be  king,  Kaikilani  was 
divorced  and  given  to  him  as  queen,  for  her  first 
husband  prized  her  happiness  above  his  own.  Lono 
built  a  yacht  worthy  of  this  Cleopatra,  a  double 
canoe  eighty  feet  long  and  seven  wide,  floored  and 
enclosed  for  twenty  feet  amidships,  so  that  the  queen 
had  an  apartment  which  was  luxuriously  furnished 
with  couches,  cloths,  festoons  of  flowers,  shells,  and 
feathers,  and  containing  a  sacred  image  and  many 
charms  against  evil.  The  twin  vessels  were  striped 
with  black  and  yellow,  figures  of  big  birds  with 
men's  heads  were  at  the  prow,  and  on  calm  days, 
when  the  sails  hung  idly,  forty  oarsmen  pulled  the 
royal  barge  at  a  gallant  rate. 

During  a  long  honeymoon  tour  the  bridal  party 
landed  on  Molokai,  to  await  the  passing  of  heavy 
weather,  and  the  young  couple  were  playing  draughts 
to  beguile  the  time,  when  a  dark  and  sudden  cloud 
fell  upon  their  happiness.  One  of  the  servants  of 
the  queen  was  a  girl  named  Kaikinani,  who  had  a 
lover,  and  while  the  king  was  studying  his  next  move 
he  heard  a  man's  voice  call,  as  he  thought,  "  Come, 
17  257 


Myths  and  Legends 

Kaikilani,  your  lover  is  waiting."  The  man  was 
calling  Kaikinani.  He  abruptly  asked  his  wife  who 
had  dared  to  address  the  queen  in  that  easy  fashion, 
and  taking  her  own  surprise  and  confusion  for  a 
token  of  guilt,  he  struck  her  with  the  checker-board, 
rushed  away  to  the  beach,  ordered  his  private  canoe 
to  be  launched,  and  seizing  one  of  the  paddles,  he 
rowed  with  his  twenty  attendants  until  he  was  ex- 
hausted. That  night  he  gained  the  shores  of  Oahu. 
When  Kaikilani  had  come  out  of  a  delirium  of 
nine  days,  and  understood  the  nature  of  the  mistake 
that  had  separated  her  from  her  husband,  she  hastily 
equipped  her  barge  and  began  a  search  for  him, — a 
search  that  lasted  for  months.  Lono,  ensconced  at 
the  court  of  Oahu,  was  trying  to  stifle  his  regrets; 
he  would  not  reveal  his  name ;  he  refused  all  com- 
panionship with  women ;  he  worked  at  play  most 
earnestly,  hunting,  rowing,  swimming,  surf-riding, 
racing,  leaping,  casting  the  spear,  halting  at  nothing 
that  involved  peril  or  that  would  tire  him  at  night 
to  a  forgetful  sleep.  His  stay  was  drawing  to  an 
end.  He  was  to  sail  for  Hawaii  in  a  day  or  two, 
for  rebellions  were  threatening  in  his  absence,  and 
his  departure  was  none  too  early,  for  certain  of  the 
gallants  were  jealous  of  his  success  in  sports  and  of 
the  unrewarded  admiration  that  the  fair  sex  gave  to 
him.  One  of  these  men  taunted  him  with  being  a 
nameless  chief.  Lono,  scowling  down  on  him,  an- 
swered that  he  would  tear  the  skin  from  his  living 
body  if  he  ever  caught  him  beyond  his  king's  pro- 
258 


In  the  Pacific 

tection,  and  producing  a  big  calabash  filled  with 
rebels'  bones,  he  chanted  the  names  of  those  he  had 
slain. 

He  was  interrupted  by  a  soft  voice,  outside  of  the 
enclosure,  chanting  his  name-song.  Who  could  have 
learned  his  name  ?  The  court  had  risen.  "  Yes," 
he  said,  "  the  singer  is  true.  I  am  Lono,  and  she 
whom  I  hear  is  my  wife.  The  gods  be  praised." 

Leaping  the  wall,  he  found,  as  he  had  hoped, 
Kaikilani,  smiling  through  her  tears.  He  held  her 
in  a  long  embrace.  Next  day  they  returned  to 
their  native  island,  where  they  reigned  to  an  old  and 
happy  age. 

THE   MAGIC   SPEAR 

KAULULAAU,  prince  of  Maui,  had  misbe- 
haved so  grossly,  painting  the  sacred  pigs, 
imitating  the  death-bird's  call  before  the  doors  of 
nervous  people,  opening  the  gates  of  fish-ponds, 
tippling  awa,  and  consorting  with  hula  dancers,  that 
his  father?  believing  him  to  be  incorrigible,  shipped 
him  off  to  Lanai  in  disgust.  Knowing  that  island 
to  be  infested  with  gnomes,  dragons,  and  monsters, 
the  lad  would  fain  have  turned  the  usual  new  leaf, 
but  he  had  promised  reform  so  many  times  and  failed 
that  his  father  was  deaf  to  his  pleadings.  Just  before 
he  embarked  the  old  high  priest  called  him  aside — 
he  always  had  a  soft  spot  in  his  heart  for  this  scape- 
grace— and  entrusted  to  him  an  ivory  spear  which 
had  been  dipped  in  the  river  of  the  dead  and  left  on 
259 


Myths  and  Legends 

an  altar  by  Lono,  the  third  person  of  the  trinity. 
With  that,  which  was  both  weapon  and  talisman, 
the  possessor  need  fear  nothing. 

Kaululaau  had  been  but  a  little  while  in  his  new 
home  when  he  was  compelled  to  put  his  gift  to  use. 
There  were  malignant  beings  on  Lanai  who  hurt 
people,  hogs,  fowls ;  blighted  cocoanuts,  bananas, 
and  taro  patches,  and  were  a  common  sorrow  to  the 
inhabitants.  Worst  among  these  tormentors  was 
the  gnome  Mooaleo,  who,  in  the  guise  of  a  big  mole, 
burrowed  under  houses  and  caused  them  to  settle, 
with  a  thump.  The  prince  caught  this  fellow  within 
a  circle  he  had  drawn  on  the  earth,  for  the  witchery 
of  the  spear  was  so  strong  that  the  effect  of  drawing 
that  line  was  felt  to  the  centre  of  the  globe.  Bur- 
row as  he  would, — and  he  did  burrow  until  he 
reached  fire, — Mooaleo  could  not  escape  from  it. 
The  magic  barrier  confined  him  like  iron.  He  came 
to  the  air  at  last  and  begged  to  be  released,  promis- 
ing to  leave  the  island  forever,  if  he  might  gain  his 
liberty.  Kaululaau  rubbed  out  twenty  or  thirty 
yards  of  the  enchanted  line,  whereupon  the  creature 
rushed  madly  through  the  gap  and  dived  into  the  sea, 
never  again  emerging  in  the  sight  of  men. 

For  a  year  the  prince  kept  up  his  war  against  the 
demons  and  slew  or  banished  every  one  of  them. 
For  this  the  men  rewarded  him  with  praise  and  gifts 
and  service,  the  women  with  love,  the  children  with 
trust.  He  was  glad  he  had  been  exiled.  Of  course, 
so  soon  as  his  father  heard  of  his  changed  life  and 
260 


In  the  Pacific 

his  courage  in  knight-errantry  he  repented  his  hard- 
ness of  spirit  and  sent  messengers  to  bid  Kaululaau 
return.  This  was  an  unwelcome  summons,  and  while 
he  dared  not  refuse,  he  took  his  own  time  in  getting 
home  again,  his  alleged  reason  for  delay  being  that  he 
wished  to  see  the  world  and  further  instruct  himself; 
his  real  reason  being  a  love  of  praise  and  adventure. 
He  stirred  up  strife  in  Hawaii ;  visited,  without  harm, 
the  wind-god's  home  on  Molokai  and  Kalipahoa's 
poison  grove,  and  on  Oahu  found  another  chance  to 
win  the  people's  favor.  A  bird  so  huge  that  its 
head  weighed  near  two  hundred  pounds  had  been 
depredating  among  the  villages,  tearing  children 
from  their  mothers  and  killing  domestic  animals,  yet 
always  defended  by  the  priests,  who,  having  con- 
fused it  with  a  strange  species  of  owl,  considered  it 
as  sacred.  The  rover  did  not  ask  permission  to  slay 
it.  Nobody  knew  him,  or  guessed  why  he  was 
going  among  the  hills.  He  came  upon  the  bird  in 
the  mountains,  when  its  beak  was  dripping  with 
human  blood,  and  at  a  mile  distance  hurled  the 
spear,  which  flew  through  the  air,  as  if  self-directed, 
and  pierced  the  creature  through  and  through.  For 
this  he  was  arrested  and  consigned  to  the  sacrificial 
altar  ;  but  when  he  abandoned  his  disguise,  appeared 
in  the  feather  cloak  and  helmet  of  a  chief,  and  made 
known  that  he  was  Kaululaau,  the  trembling,  stam- 
mering priest  owned  that  he  was  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing the  bird  to  be  taboo.  Its  huge  head  was 
produced ;  its  eyes  rolled,  its  jaws  clashed,  and  with 
261 


Myths  and  Legends 

a  scream  an  evil  human  spirit  that  had  lived  in  its 
body  flew  into  the  air.  The  ne'er-do-weel  had  a 
royal  reception  when  he  returned.  Finding  that  his 
old  friend,  the  high  priest,  was  dead,  he  fulfilled  a 
promise  by  secretly  burying  the  magic  spear-point 
in  his  grave. 


HAWAIIAN    WITCHES 

TO  the  native  Hawaiian,  who  shuns  work, 
dresses  only  for  decorative  purposes,  and  is 
willing  to  subsist  on  fruits  that  grow  without  teas- 
ing, life  is  not  so  simple  as  we  should  suppose,  to 
look  at  him.  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  even  in  a 
man's  head,  and  when  the  man  cares  to  put  nothing 
in  his  noddle  that  will  increase  his  understanding 
and  resource,  his  ancestry  will  have  planted  some- 
thing there  which  is  sure  to  swell  and  grow  until  it 
may  dominate  his  conduct  and  his  fate.  And  if  you 
open  the  head  of  an  average  barbarian  you  will  find 
a  flourishing  crop  of  superstition  fungi  inside.  So 
surely  as  he  is  a  barbarian  he  will  believe  in  witches. 
If  he  contents  himself  with  imagining  wizards  and 
spooks,  he  may  find  recreation  enough  in  the  dark, 
but  when  he  accuses  other  people  of  practising 
against  him,  and  gets  them  hanged  or  roasted,  his 
imagination  has  become  too  frisky  to  be  at  large. 
Death  for  the  practice  of  witchcraft  is  no  longer 
possible,  however,  unless  it  results  from  private 
revenge. 

262 


In  the  Pacific 

To  this  day  fear  and  ignorance  paint  gnomes  and 
elves  in  the  palm  groves  and  among  the  wild  lava  up- 
lands of  the  mid-Pacific,  and  Honolulu  itself  is  not 
free  from  the  lingering  and  traditionary  kahuna.  This 
is  the  wizard,  or  medicine  man,  or  voodoo  worker, 
who  does  by  prayer  and  spell  what  his  employers 
would  do  with  a  club  if  it  were  not  for  the  awkward 
institution  of  the  law.  When  a  Kanaka  has  endured 
an  injury  he  hires  a  kahuna  to  pray  his  enemy  to 
death.  This  imposes  on  the  victim  the  necessity  of 
hiring  a  kahuna  to  pray  down  the  other  one,  or  of 
running  away,  if  he  cannot  afford  the  expense.  The 
wizard  calls  on  his  intended  victim  and  tells  him 
what  is  about  to  happen,  and  you  would  naturally 
suppose  that  the  visitee  would  take  the  visitor  by  the 
collar  and  the  "  bosom  of  his  pants'*  and  persuade 
him  away  from  the  premises,  even  if  he  did  not  go 
out  and  exercise  upon  him  in  the  yard.  In  fact, 
record  has  been  made  of  explosive  exits  of  these 
wizards  from  Americans*  houses  when  they  made 
their  usual  courtesy  call  before  praying  the  resident 
out  of  existence,  and  'tis  said  that  they  bore  marks 
of  Lynn-made  shoe-soles  on  their  seats  of  honor  for 
a  week  after. 

But  your  Kanaka  fears  his  medicine  man  and  re- 
ceives the  news  of  doom  politely.  The  kahuna 
tells  him  that  his  conduct  has  displeased  some  god 
or  goddess  and  that  he  must  die.  Every  kahuna 
claims  what  statesmen  call  a  "  pull**  with  his  deities 
that  enables  him  to  have  his  prayers  answered,  while 
263 


Myths  and  Legends 

opposition  kahunas  are  snubbed.  After  a  couple  of 
days  the  kahuna  drops  around  to  see  how  his  victim 
is  getting  on,  and  generally  he  finds  him  in  low 
spirits,  with  a  meagre  appetite,  because  this  process 
is  as  reliable  as  its  opposite,  which  is  called  faith- 
cure.  If  a  man  can  sufficiently  persuade  himself 
that  nothing  ails  him,  he  is  almost  sure  to  recover 
from  an  illness  that  he  hasn't  got ;  and,  by  the  same 
token,  if  he  makes  himself  believe  that  he  is  going 
to  have  indigestion,  or  a  fall  on  the  ice,  or  must  die, 
he  unnerves  himself  and  makes  it  easy  for  the  ex- 
pected to  happen.  If  he  runs  away  and  hides,  the 
kahuna's  prayers  do  not  work  as  well,  and  if  he  has 
been  to  school  and  reads  the  papers,  they  do  not 
work  at  all.  Indeed,  the  islanders  have  given  up  white 
people  as  tough  subjects,  so  seasoned  in  whisky  and 
a  wrong  religion  that  curses  are  wasted  on  them  as 
water  is  wasted  on  ducks  and  Kentucky  colonels. 
The  goddess  Pele  has  resigned  the  foreigner  in  dis- 
couragement. 

Well,  on  this  second  visit  the  victim  remembers 
all  his  misfortunes  of  the  past  two  days,  his  stomach 
ache,  his  thirst,  his  stubbed  toe,  his  failure  to  collect 
eight  cents  that  a  neighbor  owes  him,  his  nightmare 
after  a  supper  of  poi, — not  mince-pie :  just  poi, — 
his  discovery  of  a  bottle  too  late  to  know  what  was 
in  it,  and  his  wife's  demand  for  a  new  dress.  All 
these  miseries  he  ascribes  to  the  left-handed  prayers 
of  which  he  is  the  subject,  and  he  offers  to  tem- 
porize. As  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  silver  is  a 
264 


In  the  Pacific 

strong  dissuader.  If  he  has  hired  a  kahuna  himself 
to  neutralize  his  enemy's  bad  prayers  with  good 
ones,  the  two  voodo  workers  will  retire  and  consult 
as  to  a  settlement,  each  preserving  a  dignity  and 
courtesy  worthy  of  his  high  profession,  for,  although 
the  Roman  soothsayers  could  not  keep  from  snicker- 
ing when  they  met  one  another  in  the  street,  these 
kahunas  really  believe  in  themselves,  for  they  have 
prayed  too  many  people  out  of  the  world  not  to 
do  so. 

If  an  apology  and  a  couple  of  dollars  fail  to  soften 
the  enemy,  or  if  the  kahunas  believe  they  can  raise 
the  stake  to  three  dollars  by  toiling  a  while  longer,  a 
prayer  duel  follows  and  the  best  man  wins.  Kahuna 
number  one  delivers  a  veritable  anathema,  bestowing 
on  his  subject  more  aches  and  illnesses  and  deformi- 
ties and  difficulties  than  Pius  IX.  conferred  on  Vic- 
tor Emmanuel,  while  number  two  sweats  with  the 
haste  and  force  of  his  invocations  for  the  continued 
or  increased  health  and  fortune  of  his  client.  If  he 
can  afford  them,  the  victim  may  hire  two  kahunas 
and  have  them  pray  around  the  house  until  the  oppo- 
sition is  silenced  or  the  malevolent  employer's  money 
gives  out.  When  one  of  the  two  prays  for  his 
patron,  in  such  a  case  the  other  may  pray  against  the 
enemy  who  began  the  trouble,  so  that,  instead  of 
doing  a  deadly  injury,  the  instigator  of  the  disturb- 
ance may  discover,  to  his  alarm,  that  he  is  in  more 
danger  than  his  foe,  and  some  morning  he  may  find 
himself  dead. 

265 


Myths  and  Legends 

King  David  Kalakaua  made  a  law  against  praying 
folks  into  their  graves,  but  the  kahunas,  to  a  man, 
cried,  "  Why,  this  will  kill  business  !  If  you  don't 
abolish  that  law  we  will  pray  you  to  death  in  two 
days."  And  King  David  took  the  law  away,  quick. 
In  order  to  make  a  prayer  for  death  effectual  the 
kahuna  must  possess  himself  of  some  object  closely 
associated  with  the  person  he  intends  to  kill.  Fin- 
ger-nails, hair,  and  teeth  are  especially  desired,  but 
if  they  cannot  be  had,  a  few  drops  of  saliva  will  do. 
The  kings  were  always  so  careful  of  their  precious 
selves  that  nail-parings  and  hair-croppings  were 
burned  to  keep  them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of 
ghoulish  kahunas,  and  they  were  always  attended  by 
a  spittoon-bearer,  who  was  a  chief  of  high  rank,  and 
whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  none  of  the  royal  spittle 
was  accessible  to  wizards  or  suspicious  strangers. 
The  spittoon  was  emptied  into  the  sea  at  a  distance 
from  land  secretly  and  in  the  middle  of  the  night. 
What  a  lecture  Charles  Dickens  would  have  read  to 
the  Americans  out  of  this  circumstance ! 

The  last  death  attributed  to  the  kahunas  was  that 
of  Princess  Kaiulani  in  the  spring  of  1899.  Though 
this  young  woman  was  enlightened,  had  travelled 
and  studied  in  Europe  and  America,  and  presumably 
disbelieved  in  the  superstitions  of  her  ancestors,  it  is 
whispered  that  the  rumor  of  kahuna  influence  against 
her  shortened  her  days  by  many.  The  people  be- 
lieved so,  at  any  rate,  though  they  were  perplexed 
by  the  failure  of  the  little  red  fish  to  run  into  the 
266 


In  the  Pacific 

harbor  just  before  she  breathed  her  last,  as  it  was  be- 
lieved that  they  always  made  their  appearance  prior 
to  a  death  in  the  royal  family.  The  rumbling  and 
hissing  and  the  sounding  of  a  heavy  major  chord  in 
the  depths  of  Kilauea  that  followed  the  funeral  of 
Kaiulani  were  directly  attributed  to  her  death. 

THE   CANNIBALS 

DESPITE  the  denials  of  Hawaiians  that  their 
ancestors  ever  ate  the  flesh  of  men,  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  a  large  company  of  cannibals,  strong, 
dark,  tattooed,  and  speaking  a  strange  language,  were 
storm-blown  to  Kauai  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
It  is  guessed  that  they  were  Papuans.  The  daughter 
of  Kokoa,  their  chief,  a  beautiful  girl  of  eighteen  or 
so,  with  braided  hair  that  almost  touched  the  ground, 
and  strings  of  pearls  at  her  neck  and  ankles,  found 
an  admirer  and  a  husband  in  an  island  chief  who  tried 
to  instruct  her  in  the  taboo,  for  he  had  seen  with 
horror  and  apprehension  that  the  new-comers  al- 
lowed their  women  to  eat  bananas,  cocoanuts,  and 
certain  fish,  and  even  to  take  them  from  the  dishes 
used  by  the  men.  The  bride  promised  to  reform 
and  live  on  poi,  but  she  had  not  been  bred  to  this 
sort  of  victual,  and  had  never  been  reproved  by  the 
gods  for  eating  other,  so  it  was  almost  inevitable  that 
she  should  backslide  in  her  virtuous  intention,  and 
when  she  so  far  defied  public  opinion,  and  thunders, 
and  earthquakes  as  to  eat  a  banana  in  view  of  the 
267 


Myths  and  Legends 

priests,  the  public  arose  as  one  man  and  demanded 
punishment.  The  chief  begged  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  send  her  back  to  her  father,  but  the  high 
priest  told  him  that  the  gods  had  been  flouted  beyond 
endurance,  and  would  be  satisfied  only  with  her 
death.  The  beautiful  and  hapless  woman  was  there- 
fore torn  from  the  arms  of  her  afflicted  husband, 
strangled,  and  thrown  into  the  sea, — a  warning  to 
all  the  sex  against  forbidden  fruit. 

Then  trouble  began.  Women's  appetites  might 
be  restrained,  but  not  those  of  men, — especially  the 
appetite  for  blood.  Kokoa  revenged  himself  for  his 
daughter's  murder  by  killing  a  relative  of  her  hus- 
band and  serving  him  hot  to  an  eager,  because  long 
abstemious,  congregation.  The  taste  of  Hawaiian 
chops  and  shoulders  revived  a  greed  for  this  sort  of 
meat,  and  they  preyed  openly  on  the  populace  of 
Kauai  until  those  who  remained  arose  as  several  men 
and  drove  them  out  of  the  island.  The  cannibals 
fled  in  haste  to  Oahu,  taking  possession  of  the  plateau 
of  Halemanu,  which  was  high,  reachable  by  only 
one  or  two  paths,  and  those  of  steepness,  difficulty, 
and  under  constant  guard,  and  here  they  established 
themselves  as  a  sort  of  Doone  band,  literally  living 
upon  the  people  in  the  country  below.  They  had 
their  temple, — oh,  yes,  indeed,  they  could  pray  as 
long  and  as  loud  as  any  one, — and  a  creditable  piece 
of  masonry  it  was,  with  its  walls  two  hundred  feet  by 
sixty,  and  seven  yards  high.  Near  it  was  an  oven 
where  five  human  bodies  could  be  roasted  at  a  time, 
268 


In  the  Pacific 

and  a  carving  stone  six  feet  long,  lightly  hollowed, 
where  the  hungry  were  served,  Kokoa  claiming  the 
hearts  and  livers  as  a  chief's  right. 

It  did  not  take  long  for  the  Oahuans  to  become 
bashful  about  visiting  the  neighborhood  of  Hale- 
manu,  and  the  man-eaters  then  took  to  eating  one 
another.  One  big,  savage  fellow,  named  Lotu,  began 
to  kill  off  his  wife's  relatives.  This  roused  one  of 
her  brothers  to  revenge.  He  strengthened  himself 
in  exercises  of  all  kinds  until  his  muscles  were  like 
steel,  and  encountered  with  Lotu  on  the  edge  of  the 
precipice  near  the  principal  path.  They  fought 
hand-to-hand  until  both  were  covered  with  blood, 
then,  finding  that  he  was  about  to  be  forced  over  the 
brink,  Lotu  clasped  his  brother-in-law  and  enemy 
about  the  neck  and  both  went  to  their  death  together. 
The  wife  and  sister  of  the  two  combatants  either 
fainted  at  the  verge  and  fell  or  wilfully  cast  herself 
from  the  same  cliff.  It  is  not  recorded  whether  these 
victims  of  an  unruly  passion  were  interred  in  earth 
or  conveniently  disposed  of  otherwise,  but  the  affair 
created  such  a  gloom  in  the  neighborhood  that  the 
cannibal  colony  moved  away  to  parts  unknown,  to 
the  vast  relief  of  the  community  in  the  more  peace- 
ful districts. 


269 


Myths  and  Legends 

•    THE   VARIOUS   GRAVES    OF   KAULII 

WHEN  the  Hawaiians  were  discovered  by- 
Captain  Cook,  in  1779,  they  had  not  been 
visited  by  white  men,  so  far  as  any  native  then  living 
could  remember.  At  all  events,  they  had  acquired 
only  a  fair  assortment  of  vices  and  not  many  diseases. 
Human  sacrifice  and  the  worship  of  phallic  emblems 
and  effigies  of  their  gods  and  dead  kings  were  com- 
mon. The  king  expected  everybody  to  fall  pros- 
trate before  him  when  he  appeared  and  pretend  to 
go  to  sleep, — to  be  of  as  little  account  as  possible. 
And  the  people  were  pliant  and  willing  under  their 
restraints.  They  allowed  that  the  king  was  absolute 
master.  Yet  they  were  contented  usually  and  not 
ill  looking ;  lithe  and  graceful,  too,  and  gay,  fond 
of  sports  and  swimming,  lovers  of  music,  dancing, 
flowers,  and  color,  friendly  in  disposition,  and  good- 
natured.  Except  in  shedding  a  few  of  their  beliefs 
with  the  taking  on  of  more  clothes,  they  have  not 
changed  greatly.  As  to  cannibalism,  white  men  have 
become  too  numerous  and  too  tough  for  eating,  any- 
way, and  they  feel  safe  in  any  native  company  of 
Pacific  Islanders  in  these  times. 

Hawaiians  claim  that  they  never  were  cannibals, 
and  that  if  they  ate  such  of  Captain  Cook  as  they 
did  not  return  to  his  second  in  command  it  was  be- 
cause they  were  absent-minded  or  mistook  him  for 
pork.  They  had  ceased  to  believe  him  a  god,  for 
he  had  displayed  infirmities  of  temper  and  consid- 
270 


In  the  Pacific 

eration  that  led  to  his  death.  A  tradition  of  theirs 
may  account  for  a  once  general  belief  in  their  man- 
eating  propensities.  It  dates  back  to  the  chieftaincy 
of  Kaulii,  in  Oahu.  The  people  were  careful  in 
the  sepulture  of  their  chiefs,  fearing  that  enemies 
might  find  the  remains  and  commit  indignities  on 
the  senseless  relics,  or  that  the  bones  might  be  used 
for  spear-points  and  fish-hooks,  such  implements 
having  magic  power  when  they  were  whittled  from 
the  shins  of  kings.  To  prevent  such  a  possibility, 
so  soon  as  the  spirit  tenant  had  gone  the  wise  men 
took  charge  of  the  body  and  prepared  it  for  the 
grave.  This  they  did  by  first  cutting  off  the  flesh, 
which,  being  transitory  and  corruptible,  they  said 
was  not  worthy  to  be  kept,  so  was  therefore  burned  ; 
then  cleaning  the  skeleton,  soaking  it  in  oil,  and 
painting  it  red  with  turmeric.  This  melancholy,  if 
gaudy,  object  was  tied  in  a  parcel  and  buried  in  some 
cave  or  cranny  where  no  foeman  would  be  likely  to 
find  it.  Sometimes  the  bodies  were  sunk  at  sea,  with 
rocks  tied  at  the  feet,  and  the  hearts  of  Hawaiian  kings 
were  often  flung  into  the  molten  lava  of  Kilauea. 

Kaulii  was  chief  in  Oahu  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Most  of  his  ninety  years  he  had  faithfully 
devoted  to  killing  other  chiefs  and  the  people  of 
other  islands,  wherefore  he  knew  that  many  would 
try  to  find  his  bones  and  break  them.  Just  before 
his  death  he  enjoined  his  councillors  to  place  his 
skeleton  in  some  receptacle  whence  it  could  not 
easily  be  taken.  After  his  death  his  head  councillor 
271 


Myths  and  Legends 

took  it  into  the  mountains  and  was  gone  for  several 
days.  When  he  returned  he  sent  an  invitation  to 
every  one  whom  his  messengers  could  reach  to  share 
in  a  feast  in  memory  of  the  dead  chief.  Free  lunch 
was  just  as  great  an  incentive  in  that  century  as  it 
will  be  in  the  next.  They  came,  those  faithful 
people,  afoot  and  in  boats,  and  camped  in  thousands 
near  the  kitchen.  After  the  games  had  been  duti- 
fully performed — for  funerals  were  seasons  of  cheer 
in  those  times — the  dinner  was  served  to  the  assem- 
bly. There  were  boiled  dogs,  roots,  fruits,  fish, 
sour  beer,  and  poi. 

When  the  last  calabash  had  been  emptied  and  the 
company  had  taken  a  long  breath,  an  elder  in  the 
party  asked  the  councillor  if  he  had  obeyed  his 
master's  command  and  buried  the  skeleton  where  it 
would  be  safe  from  the  vendetta  that  pursues  an 
enemy  to  the  grave.  The  councillor  made  an  em- 
bracing gesture  above  the  multitude.  "  Here,"  he 
cried,  "  are  the  graves  of  Kaulii.  His  bones  can 
never  be  disturbed  again." 

The  people  looked  about  the  grass  and  under 
their  dishes,  and,  seeing  nothing,  asked  to  be  en- 
lightened. Then  the  councillor  explained  that  he 
had  not  only  cleaned  the  bones  of  his  dead  lord,  but 
had  dried  and  pounded  them  to  a  fine  meal,  had 
stirred  them  into  the  mass  of  poi  which  these  war- 
riors and  statesmen  had  enveloped,  so  that  every 
man  who  had  shared  in  that  feast  was  a  grave.  And 
they  agreed  that  he  was  a  faithful  and  sagacious  ser- 
272 


In  the  Pacific 

vant,  and  passed  a  resolution  to  keep  his  memory  a 
bright  green  for  several  years  after  he  was  dead. 
They  say  that  was  the  only  time  they  ate  a  man,  and 
they  did  not  know  it  then. 

THE   KINGSHIP   OF   UMI 

WHEN  King  Liloa  died  he  left  his  younger 
son,  Hakau,  to  rule  Hawaii  in  his  place, 
but  an  older  and  natural  son,  Umi,  whose  mother 
had  been  a  farm-worker  among  the  hills,  he  ap- 
pointed as  guardian  of  the  temples  and  their  sacred 
statues.  Umi  had  not  learned  of  his  royal  parentage 
until  he  had  grown  to  be  a  fine  stout  fellow.  He 
had  lived  a  lonely  though  adventurous  life,  and  his 
kingly  origin  was  shown  in  the  fact  that  he  could 
never  be  induced  to  work  or  do  anything  useful, 
unless  it  might  be  hunting  and  fishing.  Impulses 
were  his  guides.  He  was  in  nowise  disturbed  when 
he  learned  that  Liloa  was  his  father.  On  the  con- 
crary,  he  took  on  a  new  dignity,  donned  the  feather 
cloak  and  helmet  of  a  prince,  walked,  in  a  couple 
of  days,  to  the  king's  house,  passed  the  guards  with- 
out a  word,  carelessly  striking  down  their  threaten- 
ing spears  with  his  own  ;  then,  gaining  the  king's 
presence  unannounced,  he  plumped  himself  into  the 
old  gentleman's  lap.  For  one  of  low  descent  to 
venture  on  a  liberty  like  this  was  death,  and  for  a 
moment  Liloa  was  mightily  offended.  He  sprang 
up,  spilling  the  prince  upon  the  earth ;  then,  recog- 

x8  273 


Myths  and  Legends 

nizing  on  the  young  man's  breast  an  ivory  necklace 
clasp  that  had  been  his  love-token  to  the  girl  on  the 
mountain  farm  years  before,  and  admiring  the  cour- 
age of  the  youngster,  he  kissed  him  and  welcomed 
him  to  his  family. 

The  old  king  died  soon  after,  his  skeleton  being 
duly  hidden  in  the  sea,  and  Hakau,  who  from  the 
first  had  been  jealous  of  his  half-brother,  now  began 
a  series  of  slights  and  rebukes  which  hardly  justified 
rebellion,  yet  were  so  irritating  that  after  enduring 
them  for  a  little,  Umi  retired  to  the  hills  and  re- 
sumed his  old,  lonely,  wandering  life.  Not  for  long, 
however.  Hakau  developed  into  a  tyrant,  narrow- 
minded,  selfish,  suspicious,  cruel.  One  by  one  his 
followers  left  him  ;  treasons  were  rumored  in  his 
own  household;  his  very  priests  connived  against 
him.  At  last,  reports  came  to  him  of  a  resort  to 
arms, — of  a  company  advancing  from  the  other  side 
of  Hawaii,  led  by  Umi  and  Maukaleoleo,  the  latter 
a  giant  eleven  feet  high,  who  wore  a  thicket  of  hair 
that  fell  to  his  shoulders,  bore  a  spear  thirty  feet 
long,  and  inspired  terror  by  his  very  aspect,  albeit 
in  times  of  peace  he  was  one  of  the  gentlest  of  men. 
When  this  giant  was  a  child  the  god  Kanaloa  had 
given  him  a  golden  fish,  bidding  him  eat  it  and  be 
strong.  He  had  done  so,  and  on  that  very  night 
began  his  wonderful  growth,  his  strength  so  increas- 
ing that  presently  he  could  hurl  rocks  no  two  other 
men  could  lift. 

Troubled  by  reports  of  the  uprising,  the  king 
274 


In  the  Pacific 

consulted  the  oracles  in  a  temple  he  had  promised 
to  endow,  but  never  had, — his  principal  gift  (to  be) 
— consisting  of  a  figure  of  the  war  god  Akuapaao. 
This  had  long  before  been  taken  to  Hawaii  by  a 
prophet  whose  canoe  had  been  drawn  to  its  landing- 
place  by  the  shark  god  and  the  god  of  the  winds. 
In  darkness  he  entered  the  inner  chamber  of  the 
temple.  An  unknown  voice,  speaking  from  the  holy 
of  holies,  bade  him  send  his  people  to  the  woods 
next  day  for  plumage  of  birds,  with  which  to  deco- 
rate the  statue,  when  he  should  get  it,  and  thereby 
atone  for  the  neglect  and  contempt  of  the  gods  that 
had  done  so  much  to  bring  him  into  disfavor  with 
the  people. 

Clever  priests  !  They  were  already  in  league  with 
Umi,  and  this  was  but  a  ruse  to  dissipate  the  king's 
forces.  The  oracle  was  obeyed ;  the  people  were 
sent  out  to  collect  the  feathers  of  bright-hued  birds,' 
grumbling  that  they  should  be  made  to  labor  because 
of  the  laxity  and  impiety  of  their  ruler ;  and  while 
they  hunted,  Umi,  almost  within  hearing,  was  pray- 
ing before  the  very  statue  Hakau  had  sent  his  mes- 
sengers to  fetch.  He  had  imposed  a  strict  taboo  on 
his  two  thousand  warriors  for  half  a  day,  the  taboo 
in  this  instance  imposing  silence,  fasting,  and  retire- 
ment, the  forsaking  of  all  industries,  the  extinction 
of  all  fires  and  lights,  the  muzzling  of  pigs  and  dogs, 
and  quieting  of  fowls  by  putting  them  under  cala- 
bashes. As  Umi  advanced  toward  the  statue  to 
decorate  it  with  wreaths  a  beam  of  light  fell  through 
275 


Myths  and  Legends 

a  rent  in  the  temple  roof  and  crowned  him  and  the 
god.  It  was  a  promise.  Fires  on  the  mountain 
tops  that  night  assembled  all  the  insurgent  forces, 
who  were  awaiting  these  signals,  and  a  few  hours 
later  Umi  sat  on  the  throne  of  his  father,  and  the 
hated  tyrant  Hakau  was  offered  to  his  neglected 
gods :  a  sacrifice. 

KEAULUMOKU'S    PROPHECY 

KEAULUMOKU  died  in  1784.  He  was  a 
poet,  dreamer,  prophet,  and  preserver  of  the 
legends  of  his  people.  For  more  than  three-score 
years  he  had  roamed  about  Hawaii,  esteemed  for  his 
virtues  and  his  wisdom  by  those  who  knew  him, 
tolerated  as  harmless  by  those  who  did  not.  He 
wandered  about  the  vast  and  desolate  lava  fields  and 
talked  with  spirits  there.  He  learned  rhythm  and 
music  from  the  swing  of  the  waves.  The  "  little 
people"  in  the  wood  were  his  servants  when  he 
needed  help.  In  his  closing  years  he  occupied  a 
cabin  alone  near  Kauhola.  Though  not  churlish, 
he  cared  little  for  human  society, — it  seemed  so 
small  to  him  after  daily  contemplation  of  the  ocean 
and  mountain  majesties  and  the  nightly  vision  of  the 
stars ;  but  he  was  alive  to  its  interests,  and  when  the 
future  opened  to  him  he  was  always  willing  to  read 
it  for  comfort  or  warning. 

It  was  reported  in  the  villages  at  last  that  he  would 
look  on  the  faces  of  his  people  but  once  more,  and 
276 


In  the  Pacific 

they  were  asked  to  assemble  at  his  hut  on  the  next 
evening,  when  he  would  chant  his  last  prophecy. 
Before  sunset  they  gathered  about  his  cabin  a  thou- 
sand or  more,  waiting  quietly  or  talking  in  whispers, 
and  presently  the  mat  which  hung  ih  the  entrance 
was  drawn  aside,  disclosing  the  shrunken  form  and 
frosted  hair  of  the  venerable  prophet.  He  began 
his  chant  in  the  quavering  voice  of  age,  but  as  he 
sang  he  gained  strength,  and  his  tones  were  plainly 
heard  by  all  in  the  assemblage.  He  foretold  the 
union  of  the  islands  under  Kamehameha,  the  death 
of  monarchy,  the  ruin  of  the  temples,  the  oncoming 
of  the  white  race,  the  disappearance  of  the  Hawai- 
ian people  from  the  earth.  Then  blessing  the  com- 
pany with  uplifted  hands,  Keaulumoku  sank  back 
lifeless.  He  was  buried  with  solemn  rites  in  a 
temple,  and,  under  the  inspiration  of  his  prophecy, 
Kamehameha  began  his  work  of  conquest.  In  eleven 
years  the  islands  were  one  nation.  The  rest  of  the 
prophecy  is  coming  true. 

THE  TRAGEDY   OF   SPOUTING   CAVE 

MANY  caves   pierce  the   igneous  rock  of  the 
Hawaiian  group,  some  with  entrances  below 
the  ocean  level,  and  discovered   only    by  accident. 
Famous  among  them  is  the  spouting  cave  of  Lanai. 
Old  myths  make  this  a  haunt  of  the  lizard  god,  but 
the  shark  god,  thinking  this  venture  below  the  water 
an  intrusion  on  his  territory,  threatened  to  block  the 
277 


Myths  and  Legends 

entrance  with  rocks,  so  the  lizard  god  swam  over  to 
Molokai  and  made  his  home  in  the  cave  near  Kaula- 
pana,  where  the  people  built  temples  to  him.  An 
attempt  of  a  daring  explorer  to  light  the  cave  of 
Lanai  with  fire  hid  in  a  closed  calabash  was  also  re- 
sented, the  vessel  being  dashed  out  of  the  hand  of 
the  adventurer  by  some  formless  creature  of  the  dark, 
who  also  plucked  stones  from  the  cave  roof  and 
hurled  at  him  until  he  retreated. 

To  this  island,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, came  King  Kamehameha  to  rest  after  his  war 
and  enjoy  the  fish  dinners  for  which  the  island  was 
famous.  One  of  his  captains  was  Kaili,  a  coura- 
geous and  susceptible  Hawaiian,  who  celebrated  the 
outing  by  falling  head-over-heels  in  love.  Kaala, 
"  the  perfumed  flower  of  Lanai,"  returned  his  vows, 
and  would  have  taken  him  for  a  husband,  without 
ceremony  or  delay,  save  for  the  stern  parent,  who  is 
a  frequent  figure  in  such  romances.  This  parent, 
Oponui,  had  a  reason  for  his  hate  of  Kaili,  the  two 
having  encountered  in  the  last  great  battle.  Kaili 
had  probably  forgotten  his  opponent,  but  Oponui 
bitterly  remembered  him,  for  his  best  friend  had 
been  struck  down  by  the  spear  of  the  young  captain. 
Another  cause  for  opposing  this  marriage  was  that 
Kaala  had  been  bespoken  by  a  great,  hairy,  tattooed 
savage  known  as  "  the  bone-breaker."  It  occurred 
to  Oponui  that  a  good  way  to  be  rid  of  the  cavalier 
would  be  to  let  him  settle  his  claim  with  the  famous 
wrestler.  He  chuckled  as  he  thought  of  the  out- 
278 


In  the  Pacific 

come,  for  the  bone-breaker  had  never  been  beaten. 
The  challenge  having  been  made  and  accepted,  the 
king  and  his  staff  agreed  to  watch  the  contest.  It 
was  brief,  brutal,  and  decisive.  Though  the  big 
wrestler  had  the  more  strength,  Kail!  had  the  more 
skill  and  quickness.  He  dodged  every  rush  of  his 
burly  opponent,  tripped  him,  broke  both  his  arms 
by  jumping  on  them  when  he  was  down,  and  when 
the  disabled  but  vengeful  fighter,  with  dangling 
hands,  made  a  bull-like  charge  with  lowered  head, 
the  captain  sprang  aside,  caught  him  by  the  hair, 
strained  him  suddenly  backward  across  his  knee,  and 
flung  him  to  the  earth,  dying  with  a  broken  spine. 
Kaili  had  won  his  bride. 

The  girl's  father  was  not  at  the  end  of  his  re- 
sources, however.  He  appeared  in  a  day  or  two 
', anting,  as  with  a  long  run,  and  begged  Kaala  to  fly 
at  once  to  her  mother  in  the  valley,  as  she  was  mor- 
tally ill  and  wished  to  see  her  daughter  before  she 
died.  The  girl  kissed  her  lover,  promising  to  re- 
turn soon,  and  was  hurried  away  by  Oponui  toward 
the  Spouting  Cave.  Arrived  there,  she  looked  up 
and  down  the  shore,  but  saw  none  other  than  her 
father,  who  was  smiling  into  her  face  with  a  look  of 
craft  and  cruelty  that  turned  her  sick  at  heart.  In  a 
broken  voice  she  asked  his  purpose.  Was  her  mother 
dead  ?  Had  he  killed  her  ?  Oponui  seized  her  arms 
with  the  gripe  of  a  giant.  "  The  man  you  love  is 
my  foe,"  he  shouted.  "  I  shall  kill  him,  if  I  can. 
If  not,  he  shall  never  sec  you  again.  When  he  has 
279 


Myths  and  Legends 

left  Lanai,  either  for  Hawaii  or  for  the  land  of  souls, 
I  will  bring  you  back  to  the  sun.  Come !" 

Now,  the  water  pushing  through  the  entrance  to 
this  cavern  becomes  a  whirlpool ;  then,  as  it  belches 
forth  in  a  refluent  wave,  it  is  hurled  into  a  white 
column.  Watching  until  the  water  began  to  whirl 
and  suck,  Oponui  sprang  from  the  rocks,  dragging 
his  daughter  with  him.  She  struggled  for  a  moment, 
believing  that  his  intention  was  to  drown  her.  There 
was  a  rush  and  a  roar  ;  then,  buffeted,  breathless,  she 
arose  on  the  tide,  and  in  a  few  seconds  felt  a  beach 
beneath  her  feet.  Oponui  dragged  her  out  of  reach 
of  the  wave,  and  as  soon  as  her  eyes  grew  accus- 
tomed to  the  dimness  she  found  herself  to  be  in  a 
large,  chill  cavern.  Crabs  were  clattering  over  the 
stones,  and  rays  and  eels  could  be  seen  writhing 
shadowy,  in  pools.  The  brawling  of  the  ocean 
came  smothered,  faint,  but  portentous,  and  in  the 
green  light  that  mounted  through  the  submerged 
door  the  grotto  seemed  a  place  of  dreams, — a  dank 
nightmare. 

"  Here  you  stay  until  I  come,"  commanded  Opo- 
nui. "  Make  no  attempt  to  escape,  for  so  surely  as 
you  do,  you  will  be  cut  to  pieces  on  the  rocks,  and 
the  sharks  await  outside."  Then,  diving  into  the  re- 
ceding water,  he  disappeared,  and  she  was  left  alone. 

Kaili  awaited  with  impatience  the  return  of  his 

betrothed.     He  chided  himself  that  he  had  allowed 

her  father  to  persuade  him  against  following  her  to 

the  cabin  of  her  mother.    Then  doubt  began  to  per- 

280 


In  the  Pacific 

plex  him  ;  then  suspicion.  A  bird  croaked  signifi- 
cantly as  it  flew  above  his  head.  He  could  not 
longer  endure  inaction.  Kaala's  footprints  were  still 
traceable  in  the  sand.  He  would  go  as  far  as  they 
might  lead.  He  set  off  at  a  round  pace,  stopping 
now  and  then  to  assure  himself,  and  presently  stood 
perplexed  near  the  Spouting  Cave,  for  there  they 
ceased.  As  he  was  looking  about  for  some  clew 
that  might  set  him  right  once  more,  a  faint  move- 
ment behind  him  caused  him  to  turn,  and  he  saw  a 
figure  slinking  along  from  rock  to  rock,  bending  low, 
as  if  seeking  to  be  concealed  :  Oponui !  Why  should 
he  be  alone?  Why  should  he  hide  like  that?  Why 
was  he  trying  to  escape  ?  The  truth  flashed  upon 
him.  He  remembered  the  man's  face  in  battle,  re- 
membered their  vain  though  savage  interchange  of 
spears.  Oponui  had  taken  Kaala  from  him.  Had 
he  killed  her  ?  He  sprang  toward  the  creeping  figure 
with  a  shout,  "  Where  is  my  wife  ?" 

There  was  a  short  struggle  ;  then  Oponui,  wrig- 
gling from  his  grasp,  set  off  at  a  surprising  pace  to- 
ward a  temple  of  refuge,  with  Kaili  close  at  his 
heels.  The  chase  was  vain.  Oponui  reached  the 
gate,  rushed  through,  and  fell  on  the  earth  exhausted. 
Two  priests  ran  forward  and  offered  their  taboo 
staffs  against  the  entrance  of  his  pursuer.  The  gods 
could  not  be  braved  by  breaking  the  taboo.  With  a 
taunt  and  a  curse  at  his  enemy,  the  captain  returned 
to  the  shore  where  the  footprints  had  disappeared. 
His  heart-beats  stifled  him.  His  head  was  whirling. 
281 


Myths  and  Legends 

As  he  stood  looking  down  into  the  boiling  waters 
it  seemed  to  his  wandering  fancy  as  if  the  girl  had 
risen  toward  him  in  the  spout  from  the  cave.  Hardly 
knowing  what  he  did,  he  spoke  her  name  and  leaped 
from  the  rock  to  clasp  her  pale  form.  He  was  drawn 
under,  and  in  a  few  seconds  was  flung  violently  upon 
the  beach  in  the  cave. 

Kaili's  leap  had  been  seen  by  his  king,  who, 
with  a  guide,  had  gone  to  seek  him,  and  on  learning 
of  this  grotto  the  king  and  the  guide  plunged  after. 
They  found  the  lover  seated  on  the  pebbles  in  the 
green  twilight,  with  Kaala's  head  upon  his  lap,  his 
arms  about  her.  She  was  dying,  but  a  smile  of  con- 
tent was  on  her  face.  He  tried  to  restore  her,  to 
rouse  her  to  an  effort  to  live.  It  was  of  no  avail. 
With  a  whispered  word  of  love  she  closed  her  eyes 
and  ceased  to  breathe. 

King  Kamehameha  advanced,  his  rude  face  soft- 
ened with  pity.  "  Come,  Kaili,"  he  said.  "  The 
poor  child  was  happy  in  her  last  hour.  This  cave 
is  her  proper  burial-place." 

"  I  cannot  leave  her,  O  king,  for  without  her  I  can- 
not live."  Before  his  purpose  could  be  divined,  Kaili 
had  seized  a  rock  and  brought  it  down  on  his  own 
head  with  crushing  force.  He  swayed  for  a  moment 
and  fell  dead  beside  the  body  of  his  bride.  The 
king  had  the  corpses  wrapped  in  cloth,  but  left  them 
there,  and  the  few  who  have  ventured  through  the 
whirlpool  have  seen  in  the  cave  the  skeletons  of  the 
lovers. 

282 


In  the  Pacific 

The  lament  of  Ua  has  been  preserved.  She  was 
a  girl  whose  secret  love  for  the  captain  had  impelled 
her  to  follow  him,  and  who  had  seen  his  plunge  into 
the  leaping  water.  It  runs  in  this  fashion : 

"  Dead  is  Kaili,  the  young  chief  of  Hawaii, 
The  chief  of  few  years  and  many  battles. 
His  limbs  were  strong  and  his  heart  was  gentle. 
His  face  was  like  the  sun.      He  was  without  fear. 
Dead  is  the  slayer  of  the  Bone-Breaker ; 
Dead  the  chief  who  crushed  the  bones  of  Mailou  j 
Dead  the  lover  of  Kaala  and  the  loved  of  Ua. 
For  his  love  he  plunged  into  the  deep  water. 
For  his  love  he  gave  his  life.      Who  is  like  Kaili  ? 
Kaala  is  hid  and  I  am  lonely. 
Kaili  is  dead,  and  the  black  cloth  is  over  my  heart. 
Now  let  the  gods  take  the  life  of  Ua  !" 


THE   GRAVE   OF   PUPEHE 

JUST  off  the  southwest  shore  of  Lanai  is  a  block 
of  lava  eighty  or  ninety  feet  high,  vertical  or 
overhanging  on  every  side,  absolutely  without 
foothold.    Yet  at  its  top  one  may  see  from  the  neigh- 
boring shore  a  grave  with  a  low  wall  built  about  it. 
This  is  the  resting-place  of  Pupehe,  the  wife  of  one  to 
whom  was  given  the  name  of  Misty  Eyes,  because  the 
woman's  eyes  so  dazzled  his  own.    These  two  loved 
so  well  that  they  were  all   in  all  to  one  another. 
They  chose  to  live  apart  from  their  people,  roaming 
the  woods,  climbing  the  hills,  surf-riding,  fishing, 
berrying  as  the  whim  took  them. 
283 


Myths  and  Legends 

Lest  some  chief  should  look  on  her  face  and  envy 
him,  Misty  Eyes  hid  his  companion  in  a  little  hut 
among  the  trees,  as  secret  and  secure  as  a  bird's  nest, 
and  sometimes  they  would  go  together  to  a  cave, 
opening  from  the  sea,  opposite  Pupehe's  Rock,  to 
catch  and  cook  a  sea-turtle. 

The  season  of  storms  was  at  hand,  but  as  the  day 
had  broken  fair,  Pupehe  went  to  the  cave  to  prepare 
a  meal,  while  her  husband  took  the  calabashes  to  fill 
at  a  spring  up  the  valley.  A  mist  had  come  up  from 
nowhere  when  he  turned  to  go  back  ;  the  wind  was 
rising  to  a  gale,  the  sea  was  whitening.  His  heart 
went  into  his  throat,  for  he  recalled  how  the  break- 
ers thundered  in  at  the  cave  and  swept  the  strip  of 
beach  inside.  Flinging  down  the  calabashes,  he  ran 
with  all  his  speed.  Immense  waves  were  sweeping 
the  cavern  from  end  to  end.  Their  thunder  deaf- 
ened him.  Out  of  an  acre  of  seething  white  a  brown 
arm  lifted.  He  leaped  in,  seized  Pupehe,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  gaining  the  shore,  but  to  no  avail.  She 
was  dead.  After  the  storm  had  passed  he  paddled 
to  the  lonely  rock ;  was  raised,  with  his  burden,  by 
a  pitying  god,  and  on  the  summit,  where  none  might 
stand  even  beside  the  grave  of  her  whom  in  life  he 
had  guarded  so  jealously,  he  buried  the  cold  form. 
When  the  last  stone  had  been  placed  on  the  wall, 
Misty  Eyes  sang  a  dirge  for  his  wife  and  leaped  into 
the  sea. 


284 


In  the  Pacific 

THE   LADY   OF   THE   TWILIGHT 

IN  Koolauloa,  Oahu,  is  a  natural  well,  of  un- 
known depth  and  thirty  yards  in. diameter,  that 
is  believed  to  be  connected  with  the  ocean.  Bodies 
drowned  in  this  crater  are  said  to  have  been  found 
afterward  floating  in  the  sea.  This  pond,  known  as 
Waiapuka,  hides  the  entrance  to  a  cave  that  can  be 
reached  only  by  diving,  and  in  that  cave  was  con- 
cealed during  her  infancy  Laieikawai,  Lady  of  the 
Twilight.  Her  father,  enraged  that  his  wife  always 
presented  female  children  to  him,  swore  he  would 
kill  all  such  offspring  until  a  male  issue  should  ap- 
pear, and  Laieikawai  was  therefore  kept  out  of  his 
sight  and  in  retirement  until  she  had  grown  to 
womanhood.  Her  beauty  attracted  even  the  gods, 
and  chiefs  from  many  islands  travelled  far  to  see  her 
face  when  she  had  been  taken  from  the  cavern  by 
her  grandmother  and  bestowed  more  fittingly  in  a 
house  thatched  with  parrot  feathers  and  guarded  by 
the  lizard  god.  Her  bed  was  bird-wings,  the  birds 
were  her  companions,  she  wore  a  robe  tinted  like  a 
rainbow,  and  wherever  she  went  a  fragment  of  rain- 
bow hung  over  her  and  might  be  seen  afar. 

Laieikawai  married  a  sun  prince,  and  the  same 
rainbow  served  as  a  ladder  to  take  her  to  his  new 
home  in  the  moon,  his  place  in  the  sun  being  too 
hot  and  glaring  for  endurance.  This  was  a  fickle 
prince,  for  having  seen  another  pretty  face  on  earth, 
he  descended,  and  it  was  a  year  ere  he  appeared  in 
285 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  moon  again.  The  young  wife  meanwhile  had 
gone  to  the  bowl  of  knowledge,  a  wooden  vessel 
enclosed  in  wicker,  decorated  with  feathers  and  with 
birds  carved  in  wood  along  the  rim.  Looking  in 
and  uttering  the  command,  "  Laukapalili !"  a  vision 
of  her  recreant  husband  appeared.  The  father  and 
mother  of  the  prince  were  joint  witnesses  with  the 
wife  of  his  faithlessness.  As  the  picture  vanished 
the  air  grew  dark  ;  faint,  grisly  shapes  arose,  and  wail- 
ing voices  sounded,  "  Heaven  has  fallen  !"  Standing 
on  the  rainbow  bridge,  the  father,  mother,  and  wife 
cast  off  their  love  for  the  prince,  and  condemned 
him  to  be  a  wandering  ghost,  living  on  butterflies. 
Then,  having  tired  of  heaven,  the  Lady  of  the  Twi- 
light returned  to  earth. 

THE   LADRONES 

THE  taking  of  Guam  during  the  war  with  Spain 
was  one  of  the  comedies  of  that  disagreement. 
When  its  rickety  fort  was  fired  upon  by  one  of  our 
ships,  the  Spanish  governor  hastened  down  to  the 
shore  to  greet  the  American  officers,  and  apologized 
because  he  was  out  of  powder  and  could  not  reply 
to  what  he  supposed  was  a  salute.  Off  in  that  cor- 
ner of  the  world  he  had  not  heard  of  any  war. 

With  the  cession  of  this  largest  of  the  Ladrone 

islands  we  fall  heir  to  some  race  problems  as  baffling 

as  those  presented  by  our  Indians.      The  natives  of 

this  group  belong  to  the  Tarapons,  and  the  traditions 

286 


In  the  Pacific 

of  these  people  say  that  they  vine  in  part  from  the 
east  and  partly  from  the  west.  It  has  been  thought 
that  they  have  a  slight  mixture  of  Mongolian  blood, 
and  this  is  not  unlikely,  for  Chinese  and  Japanese 
junks  have  at  various  times  been  blown  over  sea  to 
farther  shores  than  these.  History  for  this  group  be- 
gins with  Magellan,  who  named  it  for  the  ladrones 
or  thieves,  who  annexed  his  belongings  when  he 
arrived  on  the  first  voyage  that  had  ever  been  made 
around  the  world.  That  they  had  crafts  and  arts  is 
proved  by  their  weapons,  canoes,  cloth,  and  armor, 
and  they  have  left  here  some  remarkable  stone  col- 
umns, more  than  twice  the  height  of  a  man,  with 
hemispheres  of  rock  on  their  tops,  flat  sides  upper- 
most, and  six  feet  wide.  In  Tinian,  Kusaie,  and  also 
in  Ponaf>%  in  the  Carolines,  there  are  ruins,  includ- 
ing, in  the  latter  island,  a  court  three  hundred  feet 
long  with  walls  ten  yards  high,  some  of  the  mono- 
liths being  twenty-five  feet  long  and  eight  feet  thick. 
On  Tongataboo  are  larger  rocks,  forty  feet  high, 
which  were  quarried  elsewhere  and  shipped  to  that 
coral  island.  On  Easter  Island  are  platforms  a  hun- 
dred yards  long,  ten  wide  and  ten  high,  with  great 
statues  all  cut  from  stone.  None  of  these  remains, 
nor  the  picture-writing  found  near  the  statues,  throw 
light  on  the  history.,  purpose,  or  personality  of  their 
builders.  Every  family  has  its  little  circle  of  shells 
and  stones  which  is  a  shrine  where  the  gods  are  wor- 
shipped, and  most  of  the  gods  are  spirits  of  the  great 
and  wise  who  died  long  ago.  Offerings  to  these  took 
287 


Myths  and  Legends 

the  form  of  food  and  of  anointing  for  their  altars,  but 
human  sacrifices  were  no  doubt  demanded  at  times, 
when  the  priests  had  been  specially  venturesome  in 
asking  favors.  When  a  man  died  his  soul  sprang 
out,  went  below  the  earth,  and  found  felicity  in  the 
west.  This  belief  resembles  the  Indian  faith  in  the 
happy  hunting-ground,  and  incidentally  it  points  the 
course  of  empire.  The  spirit  could  return  once  in 
a  while,  and  ghostly  visitations  were  sorely  dreaded. 
The  institution  of  the  taboo  was  and  is  connected 
with  the  native  religions  of  the  Pacific  islands.  We 
have  adopted  the  word  and  use  it  in  its  true  meaning 
of  forbidden.  If  an  article  were  dedicated  to  a  god, 
or  used  in  his  worship,  or  had  been  touched  by  him, 
or  claimed  by  a  chief  or  a  priest,  no  commoner  dared 
lay  finger  on  it,  for  it  was  as  sacred  as  the  ark  of  the 
covenant.  Some  canny  planters  kept  boys  out  of 
their  orchards  and  palm  groves  by  offering  the  fruit 
to  certain  gods  until  it  was  ripe,  for  a  sign  of  taboo 
kept  out  all  marauders  till  the  crop  was  ready  for 
gathering,  when  the  owner  changed  his  mind  and 
claimed  it  himself.  To  break  a  taboo  was  not  only 
to  incur  the  wrath  of  the  priests,  but  of  the  gods  to 
whom  the  gift  was  offered,  and  who  would  surely 
reward  the  blasphemer  for  his  sin  by  illness,  acci- 
dent, loss,  or  death. 

As  soon  as  the  Spaniards  had  occupied  the  La- 
drones — afterward  named  the  Marianas,  in  honor  of 
Maria  Anna,  queen  of  Philip  IV.  of  Spain — they 
proceeded  to  slaughter  the  natives.    In  seventy  years 
288  ' 


In  the  Pacific 

they  had  slain  with  sword,  rack,  toil,  grief,  and  new 
diseases  about  fifty  thousand  people,  reducing  the 
populace  to  eighteen  hundred.  Of  this  aboriginal 
race,  the  Chamorros,  nearly  all  have  perished.  In 
their  original  estate  these  were  the  most  advanced 
of  the  Pacific  islanders  ;  they  had  more  arts,  more 
refinement,  more  kindliness,  and  more  morality  than 
the  others.  Under  an  age  of  oppression  and  abuse 
they  naturally  deteriorated,  and  have  cared  little  to 
advantage  themselves  by  the  few  schools  and  chapels 
that  the  Spaniards  established  in  Guam  and  there- 
about. It  may  be  that  the  Chamorros  shared  with 
the  people  of  the  Carolines  in  the  suffering  caused 
by  the  great  irruption  of  savages  from  the  south  under 
Icho-KaJakal.  These  warriors,  in  their  wooden  na- 
vies, desti  oyed  the  great  tombs  and  temples  -because 
they  had  been  raised  to  other  gods  than  their  own, 
slew  the  defenders  of  the  temples,  and  broke  up  the 
old  civilization,  passing  from  island  to  island,  and 
continuing  their  waste  and  murder.  It  was  a  raid 
of  Goths  and  Vandals,  and  the  effect  of  it  was  last- 
ing. In  Ponape  it  is  said  that  the  great  structures 
they  overthrew  are  haunted,  and  people  thereabout 
will  not  eat  a  certain  fresh-water  fish  of  a  blue  color, 
because  the  king,  Chauteleur,  flying  before  Icho- 
Kalakal,  fell  into  Chapalap  River  and  was  changed 
by  the  gods  into  one  of  these  fish. 


289 


Myths  and  Legends 

OLD   BELIEFS    OF   THE   FILIPINOS 

"P>  ESPECTING  their  myths  the  Filipinos  differ 
I  V  in  little  from  other  human  families  whose 
civilization  is  incomplete.  They  had  in  former 
times  the  same  tendency  to  create  gods  and  spirits 
for  particular  hills,  woods,  seas,  and  lakes,  to  endow 
the  brutes  with  human  qualities,  to  symbolize  in  the 
deeds  of  men  and  animals  the  phenomena  of  the 
heavens.  Even  now  the  Monteses  tell  of  a  tree  that 
folds  its  limbs  around  the  trunk  of  another  and  hugs 
it  to  death,  the  tree  thus  killed  rotting  and  leaving  a 
tube  of  tightly  laced  branches  in  which  are  creatures 
that  bleed  through  the  bark  at  a  sword-thrust  or  an 
ax-cut.  These  creatures  are  mischievously  alleged 
to  be  Spaniards.  The  Tagalogs  believe  in  Tic- 
Balan,  an  evil  spirit  who  inhabits  fig-trees,  but  is  kept 
off  by  wearing  a  certain  herb,  and  in  a  female  spirit 
of  the  woods,  Azuan,  who  is  kept  away  from  the 
house  in  times  of  domestic  anxiety  by  the  husband, 
who  mounts  to  the  roof  and  keeps  up  a  disturbance 
for  some  hours. 

In  their  feasts  and  ceremonies  the  natives  have 
hymns  and  prayers  to  the  rain-spirit,  the  sea,  the 
star-god,  the  good  birds,  and  the  winds.  Little  has 
been  done  toward  the  preservation  of  their  myths, 
for  the  Spaniards,  during  their  centuries  of  control, 
suppressed  learning,  except  as  it  pertained  to  relig- 
ious studies,  and  tolerated  but  scant  liberty  of  opin- 
ion. The  friars,  against  whom  the  people  nursed 
290 


In  the  Pacific 

so  strong  a  hate,  stood  for  all  that  was  harsh,  nar- 
row, tyrannical,  and  unprogressivc.  In  order  to  gain 
money  and  maintain  their  political  ascendency  they 
engaged  in  commerce,  became  owners  of  real  estate 
and  buildings,  including  saloons  and  dance-houses, 
debased  their  churchly  functions,  discouraged  at- 
tempts at  progress,  practically  forbade  the  printing 
of  secular  books  and  papers,  making  illiteracy,  with 
its  attendant  vice,  poverty,  and  superstition,  univer- 
sal ;  and  when  Dr.  Jose  Rizal  urged  his  reforms  in 
the  church  and  civil  service,  he  was  shot,  though 
not  as  a  blasphemer,  but  because  his  secret  order, 
the  Katipunan,  with  its  Masonic  ritual  and  blood 
initiation,  was  thought  to  be  dangerous  to  the  public 
peace.  v 

The  change  from  this  mediaeval  condition  to  that 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  its  impatience  of 
title,  caste,  form,  and  ceremony,  its  trust  in  equal 
right,  its  insistence  on  freedom  of  belief,  came  sud- 
denly. In  shaking  off  their  ancient  political  and 
religious  bonds  the  Filipinos  may  lose  some  of  the 
quaint  and  poetic  records  of  their  ancient  faiths  ;  /or 
the  first  progress  of  a  nation  after  a  long  sleep  is  a 
material  one,  and  art,  literature,  all  the  more  delicate 
expressions  of  national  taste,  history,  and  tendency, 
have  to  bide  their  day  until  the  fortunes  of  the  na- 
tion are  assured.  In  this  period  of  reconstruction 
let  us  hope  that  those  fables  and  dreams  will  not  be 
forgotten  which  tell,  more  truly  than  dates  and  names 
and  records,  the  ancient  state  of  the  people,  and  af- 
291 


Myths  and  Legends 

ford  us  a  means  of  estimating  the  impetus  and  direc- 
tion of  their  advance. 

The  influence  of  Christian  teaching  is  plain  in 
some  of  the  songs,  plays,  and  stories  of  the  natives, 
especially  in  the  plays,  for  in  them  the  hero  is  often 
a  Christian  prince  who  defeats  a  strong  and  wicked 
Mohammedan  ruler,  and  releases  an  injured  maiden. 
Change  the  names  and  the  play  becomes  a  modern 
English  melodrama.  In  several  of  the  islands,  how- 
ever, the  impress  of  Spanish  occupancy  is  slight,  and 
customs  are  still  in  force  that  have  existed  for  hun- 
dreds of  years.  On  Mindanao  are  still  to  be  found 
the  politic  devil-worshippers,  who,  instead  of  seek- 
ing to  ingratiate  themselves  with  benevolent  deities, 
whose  favor  is  already  assure-d,  try  to  gain  the  good- 
will of  the  fiends.  Their  rites  are  practised  in  caves 
in  which  will  be  found  ugly  figures  of  wood  and  an 
altar  on  which  animals  are  sacrificed.  The  flesh  of 
these  animals  is  eaten  by  the  devils,  according  to  the 
priests,  and  by  the  priests,  according  to  the  white 
men.  The  evil  spirits  who  appear  in  the  half-dark- 
nes.s  of  these  caves,  leaping  and  screaming,  goading 
the  company  to  frenzy,  are  priests  in  disguise  and  in 
demoniac  possession. 

Tagbanuas  tear  a  house  down  when  a  death  occurs 
in  it,  bury  the  corpse  in  the  woods,  and  mark  the 
grave  by  dishes  and  pots  used  by  the  deceased  in  life. 
These  implements  are  broken.  Among  our  American 
Indians  the  outfits  supplied  to  a  dead  man  are  in  sound 
condition,  as  it  is  supposed  he  will  need  them  on  his 
292 


In  the  Pacific 

journey  to  the  happy  hunting-grounds,  while  the 
Chinese  put  rice  and  chicken  in  sound  vessels  on  the 
graves  of  their  brethren,  believing  they  will  need 
refreshment  when  they  start  on  the  long  journey  to 
the  land  of  the  shades.  Tramps  know  where  the 
Chinese  are  accustomed  to  bury  their  dead  in  Ameri- 
can cities.  When  food  is  placed  before  an  Otaheite 
corpse  it  is  not  for  the  dead,  but  for  the  gods,  and 
is  intended  to  secure  their  good  offices  for  the  de- 
parted. While  a  Tagbanua  corpse  is  above  ground 
it  is  liable  to  be  eaten  by  a  vampire  called  the  balbal 
that  lives  on  Mindanao,  has  the  form  of  a  man  with 
wings  and  great  claws,  tears  open  the  thatch  of  houses 
and  consumrs  bodies  by  means  of  a  long  tongue, 
which  it  thrusts  through  the  opening  in  the  roof. 
These  Tagbanuas  do  not  believe  in  a  heaven  in  the 
skies,  because,  they  say,  you  could  not  get  up  there. 
When  a  man  dies  he  enters  a  cave  that  leads  into  the 
depths  of  the  earth,  and  after  travelling  for  a  long 
time  he  arrives  in  the  chamber  where  Taliakood  sits, 
— a  giant  who  employs  his  leisure  in  stirring  a  fire 
that  licks  two  tree  trunks  without  destroying  them. 
The  giant  asks  the  new-comer  if  he  has  been  good  or 
bad  in  the  world  overhead,  but  the  dead  man  makes 
no  reply.  He  has  a  witness  who  has  lived  with  him 
and  knows  his  actions,  and  it  is  the  function  and  duty 
of  this  witness  to  state  the  case.  This  little  creature 
is  a  louse.  On  being  asked  what  would  happen  if  a 
native  were  to  die  without  one  of  these  attendants, 
the  people  protest  that  no  such  thing  ever  happens. 
293 


Myths  and  Legends 

So  the  louse,  having  neither  to  gain  nor  lose,  re- 
ports the  conduct  of  his  commissary  and  associate, 
and  if  the  man  has  been  bad,  Taliakood  throws 
him  into  the  fire,  where  he  is  burned  to  ashes,  and 
so  an  end  of  him.  If  he  has  been  good,  the  giant 
speeds  him  on  his  way  to  a  happy  hunting-ground, 
where  he  can  kill  animals  by  thousands,  and  where 
the  earth  also  yields  fruits  and  vegetables  in  plenty. 
Here  he  finds  a  house,  without  having  the  trouble  to 
build  one,  and  a  wife  is  also  provided  for  him, — the 
deceased  wife  of  some  neighbor  usually,  although  he 
can  have  his  own  wife  if  she  is  considerate  enough 
to  die  when  he  does.  Down  here  everybody  is  well 
off,  though  the  rich,  having  had  much  pleasure  in  the 
world,  have  less  of  it  than  the  poor.  After  a  term 
of  years  the  Tagbanua  dies  again  and  goes  at  once  to 
a  heaven  in  a  deeper  cave  without  danger  from  fire. 
Seven  times  he  dies,  each  time  going  deeper  and  be- 
coming happier,  and  probably  gains  Nirvana  in  the 
end.  Occasionally  a  good  spirit  returns  as  a  dove, 
and  a  bad  one  comes  as  a  goat ;  indeed,  a  few  of 
the  bad  ones  are  doomed  to  wander  over  the  earth 
forever. 

A  common  belief  is  that  the  soul  is  absent  from 
the  body  in  sleep,  and  if  death  occurs  then  the  soul 
is  lost.  "  May  you  die  sleeping"  is  one  of  the  most 
dreadful  of  curses. 

Among  the  Mangyan  mountaineers  it  is  customary 
to  desert  a  person  who  is  about  to  die.  They  return 
after  his  death,  carry  the  corpse  to  the  forest,  build 
294 


In  the  Pacific 

a  fence  about  it,  and  roof  it  with  a  thatch.  These 
people  seem  to  have  no  word  for  god,  spirit,  or 
future  life  ;  they  do  not  worship  either  visible  or  un- 
seen things,  and  are  the  most  moral  of  the  Filipinos. 
The  lowlanders  also  desert  their  dying,  and  after 
death  close  all  paths  to  the  house,  leave  the  skeleton 
of  the  defunct  to  be  picked  clean  by  ants,  and  change 
their  names  for  luck. 

When  an  islander  in  the  Calamianes  province  dies 
his  friends  ask  the  corpse  where  it  would  like  to  be 
buried,  naming  several  places,  and  lifting  the  body 
after  each  question.  When  the  body  seems  to  rise 
lightly  the  dead  man  has  said,  «'  Yes."  It  may  then 
be  buried,  or  placed  in  a  tree  in  the  desired  locality, 
with  such  of  its  belongings  as  the  family  can  spare, 
ana  the  mourners  watch  around  a  fire  that  night  until 
all  the  logs  are  consumed.  The  dead  man  walks 
about  in  the  ashes,  leaving  his  footprints,  and  some- 
times shows  himself  to  his  relatives.  Singing  and 
feasting  follow  for  several  nights,  and  the  house  of 
the  dead  is  then  abandoned. 

The  holes  in  the  marble  cliffs  of  San  Francisco 
Strait  formerly  contained  the  coffined  dead  of  the 
tattooed  Pintados,  who  sacrificed  slaves  at  the  funeral 
that  they  might  attend  their  relatives  in  the  next 
world.  Fear  of  the  spirits  of  these  rocks  was  but 
partially  overcome  when  a  Spanish  priest  smashed 
the  coffins  and  tumbled  the  bodies  into  the  sea,  for 
the  strait  is  still  haunted  and  the  burial  rocks  are  good 
places  to  keep  away  from  after  dark. 
295 


Myths  and  Legends 

Among  the  Moslem  Moros  it  is  a  sure  passport  to 
heaven  to  kill  a  Christian,  and  when  one  remembers 
how  the  people  have  been  robbed,  tortured,  and  op- 
pressed by  nominal  Christians,  this  item  of  faith  is 
not  surprising.  The  more  Christians  he  kills  the 
greater  will  be  his  reward.  He  bathes  in  a  sacred 
spring,  shaves  his  eye-brows,  dresses  in  white,  takes 
an  oath  before  a  pandita  or  native  priest  to  die  killing 
infidels ;  then,  with  the  ugly  creese,  or  wave-edged 
knife,  he  runs  madly  through  the  street,  killing,  right 
and  left,  until  some  considerate  person  shoots  him. 
In  the  rage  for  blood  he  has  been  known  to  push 
himself  farther  against  a  sword  or  bayonet  that  had 
already  entered  his  vitals  in  order  to  stab  the  man 
who  had  stopped  him.  When  they  hear  of  his  death 
the  relatives  of  the  fanatic  have  a  celebration,  and 
declare  that  in  the  fall  of  the  night  they  see  him  ride 
by  on  a  white  horse,  bound  for  the  home  of  the  good, 
where  no  Christians  ever  go  to  vex  the  angels.  These 
people  are  often  fatalists.  They  will  drink  water 
known  to  be  poisoned  with  typhoid  germs,  and  when 
epidemics  come  they  declare  them  to  be  the  will  of 
God,  and  refuse  to  take  the  slightest  measure  against 
infection.  They  believe  that  when  a  strange  black 
dog  runs  by  cholera  follows  on  his  heels. 

Yet,  like  our  Indians,  the  better  Tagbanuas  and 
Calamianes  try  to  heal  the  sick  through  the  aid  of 
drugs  and  charms  and  incantations,  and  they  have 
their  medicine  man  or  papalyan.  There  is  in  the 
forest  a  strange  little  fellow,  known  as  the  man  of  the 
296 


In  the  Pacific 

wood,  who  has  the  power  of  giving  to  these  doctors 
the  art  of  healing.  He  rushes  out  upon  one  who 
walks  alone,  seeking  power,  and  brandishes  a  spear, 
finally  aiming  it  at  the  breast  of  the  candidate,  and 
advancing  his  foot  as  if  to  throw  it.  If  the  candidate 
runs  he  is  unworthy,  but  if  he  stands  his  ground  the 
little  man  of  the  wood  drops  his  spear  and  gives  a 
pearl  to  him.  This  pearl  is  never  shown  to  any- 
body. It  is  looked  at  secretly  at  a  patient's  bedside, 
and  if  clear  the  physician  will  prescribe,  but  if  it  is 
dark,  or  has  taken  on  a  stony  aspect,  he  resigns  the 
case.  The  "  drugs"  are  similar  to  those  used  by  the 
Chinese,  consisting  in  part  of  powdered  teeth  and 
bones  and  other  animal  preparations.  Charms  are 
in  c  >mmon  use  as  a  protection  not  only  from  disease 
but  irom  murder  and  misfortune,  and  in  the  fighting 
between  the  Americans  and  the  natives  about  Manila 
many  poor,  half-naked  creatures,  armed  with  bows 
and  arrows,  had  ventured  fearlessly  into  the  zone  of 
fire,  believing  themselves  to  be  safe  because  they 
wore  an  anting-anting  at  the  neck.  This  object,  like 
an  Indian's  "good  medicine,"  is  anything, — a  little 
book,  a  bright  pebble,  a  church  relic,  a  medal,  an 
old  bullet,  a  coin,  a  piece  of  cloth,  a  pack  of  cards. 
It  is  the  faith  that  goes  with  it,  not  the  object  itself, 
that  counts.  Even  Aguinaldo  has  been  invested  by 
his  followers  with  superhuman  power.  Just  before 
he  resorted  to  arms  against  the  Americans  the  natives 
knew  that  the  time  for  rebellion  had  come,  for  a 
woman  in  Biacnabato  gave  birth  to  a  child  dressed 
297 


Myths  and  Legends 

in  a  general's  uniform,  and  above  Tondo  a  woman's 
figure  crowned  with  snakes  was  painted  in  fire  upon 
the  night-sky. 

In  details  of  their  faiths  the  tribes  differ,  but  there 
is  a  prevalent  belief  in  a  principle  of  good  that  the 
Moros  call  Tuhan.  The  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are 
the  light  that  shines  from  him, — he  is  everywhere, 
all-seeing,  all-powerful ;  he  has  given  fleeting  souls 
to  brutes  and  eternal  souls  to  men.  The  soul  enters 
a  child's  body  at  birth,  through  the  soft  space  in  the 
top  of  the  head,  and  leaves  through  the  skull  at  death. 
Their  first  men  were  giants,  and  Eve  was  fifty  feet 
high,  but  as  men's  minds  grew  their  bodies  became 
of  less  account,  and  they  will  shrink  and  shrink  until, 
at  the  world's  end,  they  will  be  only  three  feet  high, 
but  will  consist  mostly  of  brains.  Comparing  a 
brawny  savage  with  an  anaemic  scholar,  one  fancies 
there  is  reason  in  this  forecast.  The  Tagbanuas  have 
no  Adam  and  Eve.  Those  of  them  who  live  beside 
the  ocean  say  they  are  the  children  of  Bulalacao,  a 
falling  star  that  descended  to  the  shore  and  became  a 
beautiful  woman.  The  gods  of  these  people  are  like 
men,  but  are  stronger,  living  in  caves,  eating  an  am- 
brosia-like boiled  rice  that  has  the  power  of  moving. 
Their  gods  sometimes  steal  their  children. 

Old  Testament  traditions  are  commonly  accepted 
by  the  Moros,  who  believe  in  No  (Noah),  Adam, 
Mosa  (Moses),  Ibrahim  (Abraham),  Sulaiman  (Solo- 
mon), Daud  (David),  and  Yakub  (Jacob)  ;  but  crea- 
tion myths  are  locally  modified,  and  some  tales  of 
298 


In  the  Pacific 

recent  emergence  of  islands  out  of  the  sea  are  proba- 
bly true.  In  all  volcanic  districts  mountains  may  be 
shaken  down  and  hills  cast  up  in  a  day.  Siquijor 
formerly  bore  the  name  of  the  Isle  of  Fire,  for  the 
natives  say  that  in  the  days  of  their  grandfathers  a 
cloud  brooded  on  the  sea  for  a  week,  uttering  thun- 
ders and  hisses  and  flashing  forth  bolts  of  fire.  When 
the  cloud  lifted,  Siquijor  stood  there.  The  geology 
of  the  island  supports  the  tradition. 

The  future  is  differently  conceived  by  different 
sects  and  families,  some  panditas  teaching  that  the 
soul,  having  come  from  God,  will  return  to  him  at 
death  ;  oVhers  that  it  will  sleep  in  the  earth  or  the 
air  until  the  world  has  ended,  when  all  will  be  swept 
on  a  wind  to  a  mount  of  judgment,  where  saints  and 
angels  will  we:gh  them,  and  souls  heavy  with  sin 
will  fall  into  hell ;  others  that  there  is  no  hell  of 
fire,  because  there  is  not  coal  enough  to  keep  it 
going,  but  that  every  man  is  punished  until  his  soul 
is  purified,  when  it  rises  to  heaven,  glowing  with 
light  and  color  ;  others  that  men  are  punished  accord- 
ing to  their  sins  ;  liars  and  gossips  with  sore  mouths 
and  tired  jaws  ;  gluttons  with  lame  stomachs ;  jeal- 
ous, cruel,  tricky  people  with  aching  hearts  ;  abusive 
and  thievish  ones  with  pains  in  their  hands ;  others 
that  one  finds  hell  enough  on  earth  in  fear,  illness, 
disappointment,  misunderstanding  and  Spaniards,  to 
atone  for  all  the  mischief  he  is  liable  to  make. 


299 


Myths  and  Legends 

ANIMAL   MYTHS 

IN  the  fables  of  the  Filipinos  the  animals  often 
speak  together  in  a  common  language.  The 
dove,  however,  is  the  only  one  that  comprehends 
human  speech,  and  it  is  a  creature  of  uncommon 
shrewdness  and  intelligence,  like  the  hare  in  the 
Indian  myths  and  Br'er  Rabbit  in  the  stories  of  our 
Southern  negroes.  Once  the  dove  was  a  child.  In 
shame  and  anger  that  its  mother  should  refuse  to  give 
it  some  rice  she  was  pounding  for  panapig  (a  sort  of 
cake),  it  ran  out  of  the  cabin,  took  two  leaves  of  a 
nipa,  shaped  wings  from  them,  which  it  fastened  to 
its  shoulders,  and  fluttered  into  the  boughs  of  a  neigh- 
boring tree,  changing,  in  its  flight,  from  a  child  to  a 
dove.  It  still  calls  for  panapig. 

Darwin  is  read  backward  by  the  natives,  for  they 
say  that  the  monkey  was  a  man,  long,  long  ago,  and 
might  have  been  one  still  but  for  his  manana  habit, 
so  general  in  the  Spanish  colonies.  He  had  a  part- 
ner whom  he  greatly  vexed  by  his  idleness,  and  once, 
when  this  partner  was  planting  rice,  he  glanced  up 
and  saw  the  monkey  squatted  on  the  earth,  with  his 
face  between  his  hands,  watching  the  labors  of  the 
industrious  member  of  the  firm, — for  nothing  makes 
loafing  sweeter  than  to  see  somebody  else  work. 
Enraged,  the  busy  one  caught  up  a  cudgel  and  flung 
it  at  the  monkey,  who  was  thereupon  seized  with  a 
sudden  but  futile  activity,  and  started  to  run  away. 
The  club  struck  him  in  the  rear  so  mightily  that  it 
300 


In  the  Pacific 

entered  his  spinal  column  and  stayed  there,  becoming 
his  tail. 

In  the  Moro  tradition  of  the  flood — a  tradition 
almost  world-wide — Noah  and  his  family  got  into  a 
box  when  the  forty  days  of  rain  began,  and  one  pair 
of  each  kind  of  bird  and  beast  followed  them.  All 
of  the  human  race  except  Noah,  his  wife  and  children, 
were  either  drowned  or  changed.  Those  men  who 
ran  to  the  mountains  when  they  saw  the  flood  rising 
became  monkeys;  those  who  flung  themselves  into  the 
sea  became  fish  ;  the  Chinese  turned  into  hornbills  ; 
a  woman  who  was  eating  seaweed  and  kept  on  eating 
after  the  waves  broke  over  her  became  a  dugong. 

In  Mindanao,  Basilan,  and  Sulu  the  pig  is  held  in 
suspicion  and  its  flesh  is  not  eaten.  The  reason  for 
this  aversion  is  that  the  first  pigs  were  grandchildren 
of  the  great  Mahomet  himself,  and  their  conversion 
to  these  lowly  quadrupeds  fell  out  in  this  way : 
When  Jesus  (Isa)  called  on  Mahomet,  the  lalter, 
jealous  of  his  reputed  power,  bade  him  guess  what 
was  in  the  next  room.  Christ  said  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  do  so.  Mahomet  then  commanded  him  to 
prove  his  ability  to  see  through  walls,  and  added  that 
if  he  made  a  mistake  he  would  kill  him.  There- 
upon Christ  answered,  "  There  are  two  animals  in 
that  chamber  that  are  like  no  other  in  the  world." 

"  Wrong !"  cried  the  Prophet,  plucking  out  his 
sword.  "  They  are  my  grandchildren.  You  have 
spoken  false,  and  you  must  lose  your  head." 

"  Look  and  see,"  insisted  Christ,  and  Mahomet 
301 


Myths  and  Legends 

flung  open  the  chamber  door,  whereupon  two  hogs 
rushed  out.  It  should  be  added  that  while  the  di- 
vinity of  Christ  is  denied  in  some  of  the  Oriental 
religions,  he  figures  in  many  of  them  as  a  great  and 
good  man,  gifted  with  supernatural  power.  Moros 
charge  as  one  reason  for  killing  Christians  that  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  disgrace  and  belie  mankind  in  teach- 
ing that  men  could  kill  their  own  god. 

On  Mindoro  the  timarau,  a  small  buffalo  that  lives 
in  the  jungle,  has  given  rise  to  rumors  of  a  fierce  and 
destructive  creature  that  carries  a  single  horn  on  his 
head.  It  is  a  wild  and  hard  fighter,  but  it  has  two 
horns,  and  is  not  likely  to  injure  any  save  those  who 
are  seeking  to  injure  it.  A  creature  with  an  armed 
head  has  lingered  down  from  the  day  of  Marco  Polo, 
because  in  the  stock  of  yarns  assembled  by  that 
redoubtable  tourist  the  unicorn  figured.  This  was 
the  rhinoceros,  which  is  found  so  near  the  Philip- 
pines as  Sumatra.  The  gnu  of  Africa  is  another 
possible  ancestor  of  this  creature,  a  belief  in  which 
goes  back  to  the  time  of  Aristotle ;  but  the  horse- 
like  animal  with  a  narwhal's  horn  that  frisks  on  the 
British  arms  never  existed. 

And,  speaking  of  horses,  it  is  strange  that  cen- 
taurs should  figure  in  the  mythology  of  a  country 
like  Luzon  ;  but  a  mile  from  the  church  at  Mariveles 
is  a  hot  spring  beside  which  lived  a  creature  that  was 
half-horse  and  half-man.  As  in  ancient  Greece,  there 
is  little  doubt  that  a  belief  in  this  being  came  from 
the  wonder  excited  by  the  first  horsemen. 
302 


In  the  Pacific 

Sea-eagles  in  the  East  are  large  and  powerful,  and 
are  believed  to  have  long  memories.  According  to 
report,  a  man  living  near  Jala  Jala  once  stole  a  nest 
of  their  young  and  carried  it  to  his  house.  It  was  a 
year  from  that  time  before  any  retaliation  was  at- 
tempted. The  birds  then  appeared  above  his  prem- 
ises, swooped  down  on  his  wife,  clawed  her  face  and 
beat  her  with  their  wir.gs  until  she  was  half-dead; 
then  picked  up  her  babe  and  carried  it  away  before 
the  eyes  of  the  helpless  parents.  Next  year  they 
came  again,  and  another  infant,  a  few  months  old, 
was  stolen.  The  man  tracked  them  to  their  nest, 
which  had  been  built  high  on  a  cliff  that  no  one  had 
ever  scaled  before.  Nerved  by  grief  and  anger,  he 
climbed  it.  In  the  nest  were  the  skeletons  of  his 
children.  As  he  clung  to  the  rock,  hanging  over  a 
dizzy  space  and  looking  on  these  sad  relics,  the  father 
bird  came  swooping  from  the  sky  and  began  to  strike 
at  him  with  claws  and  wings.  In  the  face  of  such 
an  assault  the  man  could  not  descend  in  safety.  Death 
was  sure.  He  could  only  hope  to  kill  his  enemy, 
too.  As  the  bird  drew  near  he  leaped  from  the 
rock,  caught  the  eagle  about  the  neck,  and  the  two 
plunged  down  to  death  together. 

An  animal  god  especially  to  be  feared  is  Calapni- 
tan,  king  of  the  bats.  He  is  so  powerful  and  capable 
of  mischief  that  in  exploring  a  cave  where  bats  are 
likely  to  have  congregated  the  natives  will  speak  in 
the  most  respectful  terms  of  this  deity,  for  he  would 
be  sure  to  hear  them  if  they  spoke  flippantly  of  him, 
303 


Myths  and  Legends 

and  might  swoop  from  the  cave  roof  and  whip  their 
eyes  out  with  his  leathern  wings  or  tear  them  with 
his  claws.  Hence  they  bow  their  heads  and  speak 
with  reverence  of  the  Lord  Calapnitan's  cave,  the 
Lord  Calapnitan's  stalactite,  even  recognizing  his 
temporary  ownership  of  their  clothing,  arms,  lights, 
and  so  on,  and  alluding  to  their  own  jackets  as  the 
Lord  Calapnitan's.  By  carefully  refraining  in  this 
manner  from  giving  offence  the  Filipinos  have  suc- 
ceeded in  keeping  their  skins  entire  while  guiding 
white  travellers  through  the  caverns  in  their  islands. 

LATER   RELIGIOUS    MYTHS   AND 
MIRACLES 

AMONG  stories  that  date  no  farther  back  than 
the  Spanish  conquest  we  find  the  usual  tales 
of  sacred  springs,  of  visions,  and  of  blessed  objects. 
The  Church  of  the  Holy  Infant,  in  the  city  of 
Cebu,  contains  an  image  of  the  Christ  child,  about 
fifteen  inches  in  height,  carved  in  ebony,  preserved 
in  much  state  and  loaded  with  a  profusion  of  orna- 
ment. The  priests  tell  you  that  it  was  made  in 
heaven,  thrown  to  the  earth,  and  found  in  1565  by 
a  soldier  who  recovered  from  an  illness  when  he 
touched  it.  It  was  taken  to  the  convent  in  Cebu, 
where  the  clergy  emplaced  it  with  great  ceremony, 
and  where  on  the  zoth  of  January  in  every  year  it 
is  dressed  in  a  field  marshal's  regalia,  receives  a  field 
marshal's  salute,  and  is  worshipped  by  thousands  of 
3°4 


In  the  Pacific 

pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  the  archipelago.  So  many 
women  wrought  themselves  into  an  insane  frenzy 
during  these  January  feasts  that  their  sacred  dances, 
which  were  once  a  part  of  the  ceremonies,  had  to 
be  stopped.  When  the  town  was  burned  this  statue 
saved  itself  from  the  flames,  as  did  the  bamboo  cross 
near  the  church,  which  Is  said  to  be  the  same  that 
was  erected  by  the  monk,  Martin  de  Rada,  on  the 
day  when  the  Spanish  landed,  more  than  three  cen- 
turies ago.  Matter-of-fact  historians  allow  that  the 
figure  of  the  child  may  have  been  left  there  by  Ma- 
gellan. It  worked  miracles  of  a  surprising  character 
for  years  after  his  death,  and  the  first  settlement  in 
Cebu  was  called  The  City  of  the  Most  Holy  Name 
of  Jesus  in  its  honor.  The  customary  discrepancies 
between  the  piety  and  the  practice  of  the  conquerors 
existed  in  the  Philippines,  as  in  the  Antilles.  They 
slew  the  natives  until  the  survivors  threw  up  their 
hands  and  professed  the  right  religion ;  then  they 
shot  twenty-four  thousand  Chinese  who  had  settled 
in  and  about  Cebu,  thus  reducing  themselves  to  a 
wretched  state,  for  these  Spaniards  had  depended  on 
the  Chinese  as  their  servants,  cooks,  farmers,  labor- 
ers, shoemakers,  and  tailors.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
other  missionaries  had  shown  activity,  but  with  less 
result,  for  their  methods  had  been  more  conciliatory. 
The  Mahometanism  that  had  been  introduced  by 
Moslem  preachers  from  Arabia  got  no  farther  than 
Sulu,  and  the  Confucianism  imported  by  Chinamen 
seems  to  have  obtained  no  permanent  hold.  Through 
335 


Myths  and  Legends 

all  changes  the  Holy  Child  remained  uninjured,  and 
he  continues  his  good  work  to  this  day. 

When  the  Sulu  pirates  had  fallen  upon  a  year  of 
such  bad  business  that  they  reaped  a  profit  of 
barely  fifty  per  cent,  on  their  investment  in  ships  and 
weapons,  there  was  great  discontent  among  them. 
Prizes  were  few  and  defeats  occasional.  Looking 
back  on  their  highest  hill,  as  they  sailed  away,  and 
fearing  that  when  they  returned  it  might  be  with  but 
half  a  cargo  of  gold  and  rum  and  Christians,  so  many 
of  them  wept  for  the  misery  of  this  thought  that 
to  this  day  the  height  is  known  as  Buat  Timantangis, 
or  Mount  of  Tears.  In  one  dull  season,  when  the 
pirates  were  almost  mutinous  because  of  their  con- 
tinued ill-fortune,  it  occurred  to  one  of  the  captains 
that  an  image  to  which  the  Christians  prayed  so  ear- 
nestly and  with  such  good  effect  might  do  as  much 
for  him  as  for  some  other  natives.  In  his  barbarian 
mind  there  was  no  absurdity  in  trying  to  persuade  a 
gentle  Virgin  or  a  pure-minded  Saint  to  deliver  into 
his  hands  the  goods  and  persons  of  those  who  knelt 
before  their  effigies.  A  sacred  image  was  "  good 
medicine"  for  Spaniards  and  Tagalogs,  and  should, 
therefore,  be  good  medicine  for  Mahometans. 
Thus,  he  bethought  him  of  the  statue  now  known 
as  the  Virgin  of  Antipolo,  that  came  from  Spain  by 
way  of  Mexico  in  charge  of  early  missionaries.  To 
think  was  to  act.  He  raided  the  village  where  it  had 
been  enshrined  and  attempted  to  carry  it  off;  but 
the  statue  had  warned  the  faithful  of  its  peril,  and 
306 


In  the  Pacific 

the  marauders  were  met  and  driven  off  by  a  power- 
ful force.  The  Virgin  of  Antipolo  became  one  of 
the  most  influential  of  all  the  guardians  of  the  islands, 
and  to  this  day  is  especially  besought  by  mothers 
who  ask  for  her  intercession,  on  behalf  of  their  sickly 
children.  Holy  water  taken  from  her  shrine  will 
cure  the  sufferer,  and  the  mother  then  performs  a 
public  penance  in  thankfulness.  Before  the  Ameri- 
can arrival,  with  its  sudden  imposition  of  new  ideas 
on  an  old  society,  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  see 
on  Good  Friday  a  company  of  the  richest  women  in 
Manila,  poorly  attired  and  with  bare  feet,  dragging 
through  the  streets  a  heavy  cross  thirty  feet  in  length. 
This  was  in  fulfilment  of  vows  they  had  made  at  the 
shrine  of  Antipolo. 

This  Virgin  of*  Antipolo  is  likewise  known  as  Our 
Lady  of  Good  Voyage  and  Peace.  She  arrived  from 
Mexico  in  a  state  galleon  in  1626.  On  the  voyage 
she  calmed  a  storm  so  quickly  that  the  priests  pro- 
claimed her  special  sanctity,  and  ordered  her  to  be 
received  in  Manila  with  salutes  of  bells  and  guns. 
While  the  Jesuits  were  building  a  church  for  her  she 
would  often  descend  from  her  temporary  altar  and 
stand  in  an  antipolo  tree  (Astocarpus  incisa).  Peo- 
ple cut  pieces  from  this  tree  for  charms  against  dis- 
ease and  misfortune,  until  Father  Salazar  ordered  that 
the  trunk  should  be  its  pedestal.  In  an  early  rebel- 
lion the  Chinese  insurgents  threw  the  statue  into  the 
fire.  Flames  were  all  about  it,  yet  not  a  hair,  not  a 
thread  of  lace  was  singed,  and  the  body  of  brass  was 
307 


Myths  and  Legends 

unmarked  by  smoke.  Angered  at  this  defiance  of 
their  power,  a  Chinaman  stabbed  it  in  the  face,  and, 
curiously,  the  wound  remains  to  this  day  in  protest 
against  the  savagery  that  incited  it.  When  for  a  sec- 
ond time  the  Virgin  passed  unscathed  through  a 
conflagration  the  Spanish  infantry  bore  her  on  their 
shoulders  about  the  streets,  shouting  in  the  joy  of 
her  protection.  A  galleon  having  been  endangered 
by  rocks  and  bars  in  Manila  Bay,  the  captain  bor- 
rowed this  statue,  prayed  that  it  would  secure  the 
safety  of  his  ship,  and,  to  the  wonder  of  all,  his 
vessel  rode  proudly  up  to  the  city  gates,  for  the 
Virgin  had  ordered  that  the  rocks  should  sink  deeper 
beneath  the  sea.  Twice  afterward  she  did  a  like 
service  to  captains  who  borrowed  the  figure  as  a  safe- 
guard on  the  long  voyage  to  Mexico  and  back,  for 
each  time  she  suppressed  great  storms.  At  the  time 
of  the  assault  on  Manila  by  the  Dutch  she  assisted 
in  the  defeat  of  the  strangers,  though  St.  Mark  was 
associated  with  her  in  the  victory.  He  had  told  the 
governor  in  a  dream  that  success  should  attend  the 
Spanish  arms  if  his  people  would  carry  the  Virgin 
into  the  fight.  This  was  done,  and  the  Dutch  lost 
three  ships  with  their  cargoes.  She  was  finally 
domiciled  in  the  town  of  Antipolo,  which,  beside 
being  famous  as  a  shrine,  has  been  one  of  the  most 
noted  resorts  for  brigands  in  the  Philippines.  The 
village  of  four  thousand  people  subsists  largely  on 
the  money  spent  by  pilgrims  to  her  church. 

Every  family  in  the  Christian  communities  has  a 
308 


In  the  Pacific 

little  statue  of  the  Virgin  or  of  a  patron  saint,  to 
which  prayers  are  addressed.  Occasionally  as  much 
as  a  thousand  dollars  will  be  paid  for  one  of  these 
images,  for  some  have  more  power  than  others. 
When  Tondo  caught  fire  and  was  reduced  to  ashes, 
the  houses  of  mat  and  bamboo  burning  like  paper, 
one  thing  alone  survived  the  flames :  a  wooden 
statue  of  Mary.  This  token  of  a  special  watch  upon 
the  figure  immediately  raised  its  importance,  and  it 
was  attired  in  the  dress  and  ornaments  of  gold  in 
which  it  may  now  be  seen.  Not  all  the  domestic 
saints  are  brilliantly  dressed  or  originally  expensive. 
One  Filipino  family  worshipped  a  portrait  of  Gari- 
baldi that  adorned  the  cover  of  a  raisin  box,  while  a 
native  elsewhere  was  found  on  his  knees  before  a 
picture  from  an  American  comic  paper  that  repre- 
sented President  Cleveland  attired  as  a  monk  and 
wearing  a  tin  halo.  Both  of  these  pictures  had  been 
placed  on  altars,  and  candles  were  burned  before 
them. 

Another  statue  of  great  power  is  in  the  church  at 
Majajay.  It  was  sent  there  from  Spain  in  charge  of 
the  friars,  and  is  especially  besought  by  invalids,  for 
it  is  a  general  belief  that  whosoever  will  reach  the 
church  with  breath  enough  remaining  in  him  to  re- 
cite certain  prayers  before  this  image  shall  have  fresh 
lease  of  life  ;  yea,  though  he  were  at  his  last  gasp. 

Some  of  the  attacks  made  on  the  friars  in  the 
Philippines  have  been  construed  into  attacks  on  the 
Church,  but  this  is  wrong.  For  the  good  of  the 
309 


Myths  and  Legends 

Church,  no  less  than  of  the  people,  it  is  desired  to 
purge  the  islands  of  these  ancient  offenders.  They 
have  used  religion  as  a  cloak  for  evil,  have  encour- 
aged, in  private,  vices  they  preached  against  in  pub- 
lic, have  availed  themselves  of  famines  and  other 
distresses  to  force  money  from  the  poor,  and  have 
fathered  as  many  half-castes  as  the  Spanish  soldiers 
have.  As  to  their  offspring,  Filipino  wives  have 
quieted  jealous  husbands  by  assuring  them  that  the 
appearance  of  a  European  complexion  in  a  hitherto 
brown  family  was  a  special  favor  from  St.  Peter, — a 
miracle  ordered  by  the  keeper  of  heaven  as  a  reward 
for  piety  and  good  works.  Hence,  one  hears  much  of 
St.  Peter's  children  in  the  Philippines.  Some  of  the 
white  inhabitants  have  nevertheless  been  conspicuous 
for  virtue.  Miguel  Lopez  de  Legaspi,  for  example, 
the  first  ruler  of  the  islands,  was  so  good  that  for 
years  after  his  death  his  body,  now  in  the  St.  Augus- 
tine Monastery,  Manila,  underwent  no  decay  or 
change,  but  was  like  that  of  a  man  in  sleep. 

Alitagtag,  north  of  Bauan,  became  in  1595  a  resort 
of  ghosts  and  devils  that  congregated  about  a  spring 
near  the  village,  so  that  the  people  were  afraid  to  go 
there  for  water.  A  native  headman  took  wood  from 
a  deserted  house,  made  a  cross  of  it,  and  set  it  up 
near  the  spring  to  spell  away  the  fiends.  As  the 
people  still  feared,  a  woman  of  courage  ventured 
near  the  place  to  find  that  a  stream  of  cold,  pure 
water  was  flowing  from  one  of  the  arms  of  the 
cross.  To  further  assure  the  people  that  the  evil 
310 


In  the  Pacific 

spirits  had  been  mastered  the  cross  arose  from  the 
earth  and  stalked  about  the  fields,  surrounded  by 
bright  lights.  Thereupon  the  clergy  ordered  that  it 
should  be  adored,  and  from  that  time  it  became  an  ob- 
ject of  worship,  healing  diseases,  dispelling  plagues, 
and  killing  locusts.  When  the  priests  at  Bauan  an- 
nounced that  they  intended  to  move  the  cross  to 
Lake  Bombon,  the  priest  of  Taal,  being  jealous  of 
his  brothers  in  the  other  town,  hired  some  natives  to 
steal  it  and  take  it  to  his  house.  No  sooner  had  the 
men  assembled  for  this  purpose  than  sheets  of  green 
fire  fell  about  the  cross,  defending  it  from  their  ap- 
proach, and  in  a  frenzy  of  contrition  they  ran  back, 
solemnly  vowing  that  they  would  never  make  a 
similar  attempt  again.  The  cross  was,  therefore, 
taken  to  Bauan,  where  it  did  service  for  the  people 
by  terrorizing  a  band  of  pirates  and  by  stopping  an 
eruption  of  the  Taal  volcano  in  1611.  This  peak 
of  Taal  had  been  a  resort  of  devils  from  time  imme- 
morial, and  it  had  been  a  frequent  duty  of  the  Church 
to  pray  them  into  silence.  In  the  year  just  named 
Father  Albuquerque  headed  a  procession  that  as- 
cended the  mountain  for  this  purpose.  Near  the 
summit  he  paused  and  lifted  the  cup  containing  the 
blood  of  Christ.  Dreadful  noises  were  heard,  like 
the  laughter  of  ten  thousand  fiends,  in  vaults  below. 
Then,  with  a  groan  and  crash,  the  earth  split  and 
two  craters  appeared,  one  filled  with  boiling  sulphur, 
the  other  with  green  water.  The  cross  was  sent  for. 
It  was  brought  by  four  hundred  natives.  When  it 


Myths  and  Legends 

was  put  into  the  priest's  hands  he  lifted  it  toward  the 
sky  and  all  united  in  prayer.  During  this  petition, 
while  every  head  was  bent  and  all  eyes  were  shut, 
the  craters  softly  closed  and  Taal  was  as  it  had  been 
before.  Yet  the  demons  still  linger  about  the  moun- 
tain. Not  many  years  ago  an  Englishman  tunnelled 
the  peak  for  sulphur.  The  fiends  of  the  volcano  shook 
the  roof  down  on  his  head  and  he  perished.  In  May 
it  has  been  a  custom  to  hold  a  feast  in  honor  of  this 
cross,  if  the  natives  furnish  the  necessary  candles  and 
raise  ten  dollars  for  the  officiating  priest. 

Bangi,  in  Ilocos  Norte,  had  a  shrine  in  which  was 
the  image  of  a  child  with  a  lamb.  Herbs  pressed 
against  it  would  cure  all  diseases.  For  years  a  dis- 
pute was  carried  on  between  clerical  factions  as  to 
whether  it  represented  St.  John  the  Baptist  or  Christ. 
Bishop  Miguel  Garcia,  having  undressed  it  and  exam- 
ined it  thoroughly,  decided  it  to  be  a  Chinese  idol. 
Thereupon  it  was  broken  and  burned  as  a  thing  un- 
holy. 

Our  Lady  of  Casaysay,  in  Batangas,  is  so  esteemed 
that  ships  salute  her  in  passing.  She  was  found  by 
a  fisherman  in  his  net.  He  took  her  to  a  cave,  not 
knowing  what  to  make  of  his  strange  find,  and  in- 
tending to  keep  her  there  probably  as  a  treasure  not 
to  be  shared  by  his  neighbors.  She  astonished  and 
disappointed  him  by  proclaiming  herself  with  flash- 
ing lights  of  beautiful  color  and  with  loud  music. 
As  these  demonstrations  frightened  the  peaceable 
rustics,  the  Virgin  left  her  cave,  visited  a  native 
312 


In  the  Pacific 

woman,  spoke  kindly  to  her,  and  was  thereupon 
provided  with  a  shrine,  where  she  might  be  adored 
with  proper  ceremony. 

The  statue  of  St.  Joaquin  at  Gusi  is  remarkable 
because  every  year  it  runs  away  and  spends  two 
weeks  with  its  wooden  wife,  the  figure  of  St.  Ann, 
at  Molo. 

Manila  once  had  a  saint  that  wagged  its  head 
approvingly  at  certain  points  in  the  sermon.  This 
conduct  drove  so  many  women  into  hysterics,  and 
crowded  the  church  so  dangerously  with  people  who 
went  to  see  the  miracle,  that  the  archbishop  discoun- 
tenanced its  action,  and  ordered  that  it  should  be 
quiet  thereafter.  Quiet  was  easily  secured  by  cutting 
the  string  attached  to  the  saint's  neck.  The  padre 
was  accustomed  to  pull  this  during  his  discourse 
whenever  he  wished  his  congregation  to  believe  that 
the  saints  approved  his  eloquence  or  endorsed  his 
doctrine. 

Holy  water  from  the  Conception  district  of  Panay 
saves  life,  and  San  Pascual  Bailon  cures  barrenness. 
A  Manila  milkman  who  was  punished  for  selling 
watered  milk  expressed  surprise  at  the  complaints 
of  his  customers,  because  no  wrong  had  been  com- 
mitted, inasmuch  as  he  had  used  nothing  but  holy 
water,  which  was  far  superior  to  milk.  Water  from 
the  prison  well  at  Iloilo  was  held  at  so  high  a  value 
that  the  prison-keeper  made  a  fortune  from  it,  as 
it  was  given  out  that  Christ  and  the  Virgin  had 
been  seen  bathing  in  the  well.  Our  Lady  of  the  Holy 


Myths  and  Legends 

Waters  presides  over  the  hot  springs  below  Maquiling 
Mountain,  an  old  crater.  Another  popular  place  of 
pilgrimage  is  the  shrine  at  Tagbauang,  near  Iloilo, 
where  illnesses  are  cured  at  a  high  mass  in  January. 
One  of  the  last  recorded  appearances  of  the  Vir- 
gin was  in  1884,  when  a  band  of  robbers  in  Tayabas 
killed  a  plantation  manager,  wounded  several  labor- 
ers, and  ransacked  the  house  of  the  owner.  While 
in  one  of  the  bedrooms  tying  clothes,  jewelry,  and 
other  loot  into  parcels  for  removal,  the  Virgin  ap- 
peared, and  standing  in  the  door  looked  with  severity 
and  distress  on  the  bandits.  They  immediately  left 
their  plunder  and  ran  pell-mell  from  the  building. 
Some  of  these  robbers  were  arrested,  but  the  Virgin 
had  compassion  on  them  for  leaving  the  proceeds  of 
their  raid,  so  none  was  garroted  or  even  sentenced. 
Some  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  Virgin  had  nothing 
to  do  with  their  escape  from  punishment,  alleging 
that  the  officers  of  the  law  had  conspired  with  them, 
and  that  the  Spanish  courts  were  even  worse  than 
those  of  a  land  that  shall  be  nameless  in  respect  of 
their  slowness  and  the  facilities  they  offered  for  ad- 
journments, retrials,  and  appeals  on  grounds  that  if 
presented  in  any  other  cause  than  that  of  a  breaker 
of  the  law  would  be  laughed  to  scorn.  Filipino 
bandits  often  wear  medals  of  the  Virgin  and  saints 
to  protect  them  from  harm,  and  some  are  made  bold 
by  confidence  in  their  protection.  It  is  a  belief  of 
theirs  that  they  will  never  be  punished  for  any  crime 
they  may  commit  in  Easter  week,  for  the  rather  ob- 
3H 


In  the  Pacific 

scare  reason  that  Christ  pardoned  the  thief  on  the 
cross  on  Good  Friday. 

A  curious  chapel  on  a  bluff  near  Pasig,  overlook- 
ing the  river  of  that  name,  has  the  form  of  a  pagoda. 
It  was  built  as  a  thank-offering  by  a  Chinaman  who, 
having  been  endangered  by  a  crocodile,  and  having 
called  on  men  and  joss  without  receiving  an  an- 
swer, prayed  volubly  to  the  Christians'  God  as  he 
swam  toward  the  shore,  and  promised  to  erect  a 
chapel  in  return  for  his  life.  His  prayer  was  an- 
swered, for  the  crocodile  was  turned  to  stone,  and 
may  now  be  seen  in  the  bed  of  the  stream,  while  the 
grateful  Mongol  kept  his  word,  and  also  joined  the 
church. 


BANKIVA,  THE   PHILIPPINE  PIED  PIPER 

OF  nearly  six  hundred  species  of  birds  in  the 
Philippines  the  jungle  fowl,  or  bankiva,  is 
best  known,  and  is  both  killed  and  domesticated. 
Unlike  the  dove,  it  does  not  understand  human 
speech,  but  it  has  a  power  over  our  kind  that  is  exer- 
cised by  no  other  animal.  Once  a  year  the  spirits 
grant  to  it  this  power  of  charming,  in  order  that 
both  spirits  and  birds  may  be  revenged  on  men,  their 
constant  enemies.  When  that  day  comes  the  Luzon 
mother  tremblingly  gathers  her  little  ones  about  her 
and  warns  them  not  to  leave  their  door,  for  young  ears 
heed  the  strange,  sweet  music  of  the  fowl's  voice, 
which  grown  people  cannot  hear.  On  that  day  the 
315 


Myths  and  Legends 

bird  sings  with  a  new  note,  and  the  flock  of  bankivas 
choose  the  largest,  handsomest  of  their  number  to 
lead  the  march  of  children.  On  the  edge  of  the 
village  he  gives  his  song,  and  every  toddler  runs 
delightedly  to  see  what  causes  the  music.  Babes 
respond  with  soft,  cooing  notes,  and  will  go  on 
hands  and  knees  if  they  can.  They  find  the  ban- 
kivas gathered  in  a  little  ring,  spreading  their  tails 
and  wings,  dancing  and  singing  in  harmony,  the  head 
bird  setting  the  air.  When  the  children  have  gath- 
ered, they,  too,  begin  to  dance  and  sing,  following 
the  birds  as  they  go  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  wood. 
Night  falls,  and  with  a  harsh  cry  the  bankivas  fly  away 
in  all  directions.  The  children  are  as  if  awakened 
from  a  sleep.  They  do  not  know  where  they  are, 
and  cannot  tell  which  way  to  turn.  Jungles  and 
swamps  are  about  them,  man-eating  crocodiles  are 
watching  from  the  water,  poisonous  and  strangling 
snakes  are  gliding  about  the  brush,  the  pythons  that 
loop  themselves  from  overhanging  limbs  are  some- 
times thrice  the  length  of  a  man.  Dread  and  danger 
are  on  every  hand.  And  at  home  the  mothers  sit 
crying.  Sometimes,  though  rarely,  a  man  or  woman 
totters  back  to  a  village  bearing  marks  of  great  age, 
and  is  sure  that  he  or  she  left  there  only  the  night 
before.  These  wanderers  do  not  know  where  they 
have  been.  They  remember  only  that  the  bankiva 
sang  sweetly,  and  they  followed  it,  as  the  children 
of  Hamelin  followed  the  pied  piper. 


In  the  Pacific 

THE  CRAB  TRIED  TO   EAT  THE  MOON 

AMONG  the  fantastic  stories  told  of  snakes, 
water-buffalo,  birds,  and  sharks  are  several 
that  have  obvious  meaning.  The  crab  figures  in 
certain  of  these  tales  as  the  cause  of  the  tides.  He 
was  an  enormous  creature  and  lived  in  a  great  hole 
in  the  bottom  of  a  distant  sea,  whence  he  crawled 
twice  a  day,  the  water  pouring  into  the  hollow  then, 
and  leaving  low  water  on  the  coast.  When  he  set- 
tled back  again  the  water  was  forced  out  and  the  tide 
was  high.  The  relation  of  tides  to  the  moon  may 
have  introduced  this  creature  in  another  aspect  as 
the  moon's  enemy  and  cause  of  her  eclipse,  for  it 
is  related  that  one  evening  a  Filipino  princess  walk- 
ing on  a  beach  saw  with  astonishment  an  island  that 
had  never  been  visible  on  the  sea  before.  Her  emo- 
tion was  that  of  alarm  when  she  saw  the  island  ap- 
proach the  shore,  and  she  hid  in  the  shrubbery  to 
watch.  Presently  she  could  make  out,  despite  the 
failing  light,  that  it  was  no  island,  but  a  crab  larger 
than  a  hundred  buffalo.  Its  goggling  eyes  were  dread- 
ful to  see,  its  mouth  was  opening  fiercely,  its  claws 
working  as  if  eager  to  clutch  its  prey.  The  moon 
arose  at  the  full,  making  a  track  of  light  across  the 
heaving  waters,  and  the  crab,  facing  east,  prepared 
to  spring  and  drag  it  to  its  den  beneath  the  ocean. 
Half  a  mile  away  the  people  of  the  princess  were 
holding  a  feast  with  songs  and  dances.  Would  they 
hear  a  signal  ?  She  placed  her  conch-shell  horn  at 
317 


Myths  and  Legends 

her  lips  and  blew  with  all  her  strength.  The  mon- 
ster still  gnashed  and  grasped  in  expectancy  at  the 
sea's  edge,  and  a  breeze  brought  through  the  wood  a 
faint  sound  of  drums.  Her  people  had  not  heard. 
Again  she  blew.  This  time  the  woods  were  still. 
Her  people  were  listening.  A  third  blast  followed, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  the  warriors  swarmed  upon  the 
beach  with  knives,  swords,  and  lances.  While  the 
princess  was  explaining  to  them  the  moon's  peril  the 
crab  made  a  leap  into  the  air  and  darkened  its  face, 
causing  an  eclipse,  but  failing  to  get  a  hold  it  dropped 
back  to  the  beach  again,  where  the  people  fell  upon 
it,  the  princess  leading  the  attack  with  the  war-call 
of  her  tribe.  As  the  crab  turned  to  see  what  had 
befallen,  the  princess  slashed  off  his  great  left  claw. 
With  the  other  it  crushed  a  soldier,  but  again  her 
cresse  fell  and  the  right  claw  fell  likewise.  Then  a 
hundred  men  rushed  upon  the  creature,  prodding 
their  spears  into  joints  of  his  legs  and  the  dividing 
line  between  his  back  plate  and  belly.  Others  fell 
under  his  great  bulk  or  were  gnashed  by  his  iron 
teeth,  but  in  the  end  his  shell  was  broken  and  the 
moon  was  safe.  And  often  when  the  gentle  pirate 
of  the  Sulus  scoured  the  sea  he  uttered  a  prayer  be- 
fore an  image  of  the  princess  for  a  bright  night  and 
an  easy  victim,  for  had  it  not  been  for  her  the  crab 
would  have  swallowed  the  moon,  and  the  sea  would 
have  been  as  dark  as  some  kinds  of  a  conscience. 


In  the  Pacific 

THE   CONVERSION   OF   AMAMBAR 

WHILE  roving  over  the  waters  that  covered 
the  earth  the  sun  god  saw  the  nymph 
Ursula  sporting  in  the  waves,  and  was  smitten  with 
a  quick  and  mighty  fondness.  He  nearly  consumed 
himself  in  the  ardor  of  his  affection.  She,  however, 
was  as  cold  and  pure  as  the  sea.  As  she  swung 
drowsily  on  the  billows  she  was  like  a  picture  painted 
in  foam  on  their  blue-green  depth,  and  in  breathing 
her  bosom  rose  and  fell  like  the  waves  themselves. 
As  she  saw  the  god  descending  she  was  filled  with 
alarm,  but  as  he  took  her  into  his  strong  embrace 
and  placed  his  cheek  to  hers  a  new  life  and  warmth 
came  to  her,  and  in  their  marriage  the  spirits  of  the 
air  and  water  rejoiced.  A  son  was  born  to  them, — 
so  beautiful  a  boy  that  the  sun  god  made  a  land  for 
him,  stocked  it  with  living  creatures,  adorned  it  with 
greenery  and  flowers,  and  gave  it  to  the  human  race 
as  an  inheritance  of  joy  forever.  This  land  he  called 
Cebu,  and  no  land  was  more  lovely.  Lupa  was  the 
child,  and  from  him  came  all  the  kings  of  Cebu, 
among  them  Amambar,  the  first  chief  of  the  island 
of  whom  we  have  definite  record.  In  the  day  of  his 
rule  the  group  had  long  been  peopled,  and  the  use 
of  tools  and  weapons  had  become  known.  One  oc- 
casionally finds  to-day  the  stone  arrows  and  axes  they 
called  "lightning  teeth, "and  with  which  they  worked 
such  harm  to  one  another  in  their  many  wars. 
It  was  an  evening  of  March,  1521,  a  calm  and 
319 


Myths  and  Legends 

pleasant  evening,  with  the  perfume  of  flowers  mixed 
with  the  tonic  tang  of  the  ocean,  birds  flying  and 
monkeys  chattering  in  the  wood,  and  a  gentle  surf 
whispering  upon  the  beach.  Amambar  was  walking 
on  the  shore  alone.  He  had  gone  there  to  watch  the 
gambols  of  the  mermaids,  when  a  great  light  whi- 
tened against  the  sunset.  It  came  from  a  cross  that 
had  been  planted  just  out  of  reach  of  the  sea.  He 
put  his  hands  before  his  eyes  that  it  might  not  dazzle 
him.  Then,  as  the  moon  arose,  he  peered  beneath 
his  hands,  out  over  the  restless  water,  and  there, 
against  the  golden  globe  that  was  lifting  over  the 
edge  of  the  world,  could  be  seen  a  flock  of  monster 
birds  with  gray  wings,  and  dark  men  walking  on 
their  backs  as  they  lightly  rode  the  billows,  the  men 
sparkling  and  glinting  as  they  moved,  for  they  were 
arrayed  in  metal  and  bore  long  knives  and  lances  that 
flashed  like  stars.  Other  of  the  company  wore  black 
robes  and  sang  in  unknown  words,  their  voices  mix- 
ing in  a  music  never  heard  by  Amambar  before.  A 
sparkling  white  cloud  drooped  slowly  from  the  sky. 
A  diamond  vapor  played  about  the  cross.  Out  of 
the  cloud  came  a  melodious  voice  saying,  "  Look  up, 
O  chief!"  And  looking  at  the  cross  again,  he  saw, 
extended  there,  a  bleeding  figure  with  a  compas- 
sionate face  that  gazed  down  upon  him  and  declared, 
"  I  am  Jesus  Christ,  son  of  the  only  God.  Those 
whom  you  see  in  the  ships  are  my  people,  who  have 
come  to  these  islands  to  rule  you  for  your  good." 
Amambar  fell  prone  on  the  sand  and  prayed  for  a 
320 


In  the  Pacific 

Jong  time,  not  daring  to  open  his  eyes.  When  he 
regained  courage  and  arose  the  cloud  was  gone  ;  the 
ships  had  sailed  away.  He  was  alone. 

The  commander  of  the  ships  was  Magellan.  It 
was  one  of  his  monks  who  had  placed  the  cross  on 
shore.  Landing  in  Cebu  later,  he  converted  two 
thousand  of  the  natives  in  a  day  by  destroying  the 
statue  of  Vishnu  and  putting  that  of  the  child  Jesus 
in  its  place,  though  he  still  yielded  to  savage  opinion 
in  so  far  as  he  consented  to  confirm  his  friendship 
with  the  king  by  a  heathen  ceremony,  each  opening 
a  vein  in  his  arm  and  drinking  the  blood  of  the 
other.  As  usual,  the  appearance  and  ways  of  the 
Europeans  smote  the  natives  with  wonder.  They 
described  the  strangers  as  enormous  men  with  long 
noses,  who  dressed  in  fine  robes,  ate  stones  (ship- 
bread),  drank  fire  from  sticks  (pipes),  and  breathed 
out  the  smoke,  commanded  thunder  and  lightning 
from  metal  tubes,  and  were  gods.  Engaging  in  a 
wrangle  between  two  tribes,  Magellan  was  lured 
into  a  marsh  at  Mactan,  and  there,  while  watching 
a  battle  to  see  how  great  the  Filipinos  could  be  in 
war,  he  was  slain  with  bamboo  lances  sharpened  and 
hardened  in  fire.  Amambar's  Christianity  did  not 
endure,  for  he  so  wearied  of  the  oppression  and 
rapacity  of  the  strangers  that  when  a  successor  to 
Magellan  appeared  he  invited  him  to  a  banquet  and 
slew  him  at  his  meat.  But  the  cross  and  the  statue  of 
Christ  worked  miracles  among  the  faithful  for  many 
generations. 

*r  321 


Myths  and  Legends 
THE   BEDEVILLED    GALLEON 

"  Sing  hey,  sing  ho !     The  wind  doth  blow, 
And  I'll  meet  my  love  in  the  morning," 

SANG  the  lookout,  as  he  paced  the  forecastle  of 
the  galleon  Rose  of  May,  and  peered  about 
for  signs  of  land  against  the  dawn.  Not  that  he  ex- 
pected to  meet  his  love  in  the  morning,  nor  for  many 
mornings,  but  he  had  been  up  in  his  off-watch  and 
was  getting  drowsy,  so  that  he  sang  to  keep  himself 
awake.  His  was  one  of  the  first  among  the  English 
ships  to  follow  in  Magellan's  track.  The  Philip- 
pines, or  the  Manillas,  as  they  were  called,  had  been 
almost  reached,  and  it  was  expected  that  Mindanao 
would  be  sighted  at  break  of  day  off  the  starboard 
bow. 

"  Hello,  forward  !"  bawled  the  man  at  the  helm. 
"  Ay,  ay  !"  sang  the  lookout. 
"  What  d'ye  make  o'  yonder  light  ?" 
"Light?      What   d'ye  mean,   man?"      And  the 
lookout   rubbed   his  eyes,  scanned  the  water  close 
and  far,  and  wondered  if  his  sight  was  going  out. 
"  In  the  sky,  o'  course,  ye  bumble-brain." 
"  Now,  by  the  mass,  you  costard,  you  gave  me  a 
twist  of  the  inwards  with  your  lame  joke." 
"  'Tis  no  joke.     Will  you  answer  ?" 
"  Why,  then,  'tis  the  daylight,  in  course,  and  you 
aiming  for  it  that  steady  as  to  drive  the  nose  of  us 
straight  agin  the  sun,  give  he  comes  up  where  he 
threats  to.     And  he'll  be  here  straightway,  for  in 
322 


In  the  Pacific 

these  waters  he  comes  up  as  he  were  popped  outen 
a  cohorn." 

"  The  day  !  Heaven  forcfend  !  I'm  holding  her 
to  the  north." 

"  You're  holding  due  east.  Aha  !  Look  yonder, 
where  the  cloud  is  lifting.  Land  ho !" 

"  Where  away  ?"  cried  a  mate,  roused  out  of  a 
forbidden  doze  by  this  talk,  and  blundering  up  to 
the  roof  of  the  after-castle. 

"  Port  bow,  sir." 

"  Port  bow  !  The  fiend  take  us !  You  block  ! 
You  jolterhead  !  Where  are  you  fetching  us  ?" 

"  I'm  holding  her  due  to  the  north,  sir,  as  you 
bade  me,"  faltered  the  steersman.  "  Look  for  your- 
self, if  it  please  you,  for  'tis  light  enough  to  read  the 
card  without  the  binnacle  lamp.  We're  sailing  east 
by  the  sky  and  north  by  the  needle.  The  ship's 
bedevilled  !" 

"  Hold  your  peace,  or  you'll  have  the  crew  in  a 
fright.  Head  her  around  eight  points  to  port,  and 
keep  her  west  by  the  card." 

"Lights  in,  sir?  The  sun  is  up,"  called  the 
lookout." 

"  Yes."  And  the  mate  added  in  a  lower  tone, 
"  'Tis  the  first  time  ever  the  sun  came  up  in  the 
north." 

"  What's  all  this  gabble  ?"  grumbled  the  captain, 
thrusting  his  red  and  whiskered  face  out  of  the  cabin. 
"  Can't  a  man  have  his  rest  when  you  keep  the 
watch,  Master  Roaker?" 

323 


Myths  and  Legends 

"  Pray,  captain,  come  and  look  at  the  compass. 
Do  you  see  the  lay  o'  the  needle  ?  We're  sailing 
west  to  hold  north,  or  else  the  sun  has  missed  stays 
over  night  and  come  up  in  the  north  himself." 

"  Hi,  hi !  That's  parlous  odd.  Keep  her  as  you 
have  her,  and  have  out  Bill,  the  carpenter,  to  see  if 
there's  any  iron  overside.  Nay,  let  her  off  a  little 
more,  for  that's  a  hard-looking  piece  of  shore  out 
yonder,  for  all  of  the  palms  and  green  stuff." 

The  watch  was  changed  presently,  the  captain 
preferring  to  take  the  biscuit  and  spirits  that  were 
his  breakfast  on  the  deck.  He  went  to  the  compass 
every  minute  or  so,  looked  curiously  at  the  draw  of 
the  sails  and  studied  the  water  alongside.  The  car- 
penter had  reported  all  sound,  with  no  iron  out  of 
place  to  deflect  the  needle.  There  was  a  grave  look 
on  the  faces  of  the  officers,  and  the  men  talked  low 
together  as  they  watched  them. 

"Strange-looking  hill  out  yonder,"  remarked  a 
mate.  «'  Not  a  tree  on  it,  nor  any  green  thing.  'Tis 
black  and  shining  enough  for  the  devil's  grave- 
stone." 

"  Have  done  with  your  gossip  of  devils,"  snorted 
the  other  mate.  "  You're  as  evil  a  man  for  a  ship's 
company  as  a  whistler.  You'll  be  calling  ill  luck  on 
us  to  name  the  fiend  so  often." 

''Looks  like  shoal  water  forward,  sir,"  called  the 
new  lookout. 

"  Right !  Head  her  away  to  port  yet  farther. 
Look  you,  fellow,  have  you  no  inkling  of  your  busi- 
324 


In  the  Pacific 

ness  ?  You'll  have  us  all  ashore.  Mary,  mother  ! 
Give  me  the  helm  !"  With  sweat  bursting  from  his 
brow  the  captain  caught  the  tiller  and  put  it  hard 
over.  The  ship  shook  a  bit,  swerved,  yet  made  side- 
wise  toward  the  green  patch  on  the  sea.  The  land 
was  looming  large  now. 

"  'Tis  not  in  the  rudder  to  keep  her  off,  sir," 
called  a  mate  who  had  gone  forward.  "  'Tis  the 
leeway  she  is  making." 

"  There's  a  scant  breeze." 

"  Ay,  but  there  must  be  a  fearsome  current." 

"  I  see  no  sign  of  it.  This  water  is  smooth  as 
any  pond." 

"  But  you  see  for  yourself,  she's  gaining  on  the 
shore.  Look,  now,  how  we're  passing  that  patch  o* 
water-weed." 

"  I  think  hell  is  under  us.  Have  up  the  clerk  and 
put  him  at  prayers,  and  you  fellows  take  in  sail — 
each  rag  of  it — that  if  we  strike  we  may  go  easy. 
Call  all  hands.  See  that  the  boats  are  clear.  She 
minds  her  helm  no  more  than  a  straw.  God  help  us !" 

The  galleon  was  at  the  edge  of  the  shoal  spot 
now,  and  all  held  their  breath,  expecting  to  hear  the 
grinding  of  the  keel  on  a  bank  ;  but,  no,  she  floated 
in  safety. 

"  Sound  !"  commanded  the  captain.  "  There  may 
be  anchorage." 

"  Four  fathom,"  called  the  sailor  at  the  lead  after 
he  had  made  his  cast. 

"  Stand  by  to  let  go.  We'll  tie  up  here  till  the 
325 


Myths  and  Legends 

tide  turns  or  the  spell's  worked  out.     Alive — alive, 
there  !     Get  that  anchor  overboard." 

"  It  be  wedged  agin  the  bulwark,  captain,  and 
needs  another  pair  o'  hands." 

"  Forward  all !  Why,  you  lump,  the  flukes  are 
clear.  What  ails  you  ?  Lift  all.  There  !" 

With  an  united  heave  the  sailors  raised  the  barbed 
iron  and  cast  it  over  the  side.  The  faces  of  all 
dripped  and  went  white,  and  their  knees  bent  then, 
for  the  anchor  flew  from  their  hands  and  struck  the 
sea  quite  twenty  feet  away, — in  deep  water,  for  the 
shoal  was  passed, — and  the  chain  paid  out  like  rope 
as  the  iron  sank,  yet  not  straight  down.  It  rattled 
off  toward  the  shore. 

"  We've  had  krakens  and  mermaids  and  all  variety 
of  horrid  beasts,"  said  one  old  tar,  with  his  jaw 
a-shaking,  "  and  now  the  foul  fiend  has  that  anchor, 
and  is  pulling  us  ashore  with  it." 

The  chain  had  run  out  to  its  length,  but  the  an- 
chor had  found  no  bottom.  A  cracking  and  grind- 
ing of  the  links  could  be  heard,  as  if  a  tug  of  war 
were  going  on  between  two  giants  that  had  this 
chain  between  them.  Bits  of  rust  powdered  off, 
and  the  strain  was  tearing  splinters  from  the  timbers. 
A  loud  snap, — the  chain  had  parted.  Down  went 
the  anchor,  but  again  not  straight, — off  toward  the 
land,  and  one  free  link  of  the  chain  shot  as  if  from 
a  gun  straight  toward  the  shore,  whizzing  with  ever- 
increasing  speed  until  it  was  out  of  sight.  The  men 
looked  at  one  another  in  amaze. 
326 


In  the  Pacific 

"  Get  up  the  stores,"  shouted  the  captain,  "  and 
be  ready  all  to  quit  the  ship."  He  added  to  his 
mates,  "  A  half  hour's  the  longest  we  can  hope  for. 
The  Rose  of  May  will  be  on  the  black  cliff  by  that. 
Is  the  clerk  praying  ?  Good  !  We  may  get  away 
in  the  boats,  but  we'll  end  our  days  here  in  the 
Manillas.  Alack,  my  Betsy !  I'll  never  look  into 
her  eyes  again." 

"  She's  down  a  little  by  the  head,  an't  please 
you,"  cried  a  sailor,  running  aft. 

"  Ease  her  a  little,  then.  Toss  over  some  of  the 
dunnage." 

"  Lor' !  Lor' !  Spare  us  all  this  day  !"  yelled  a 
sailor  a  minute  later. 

"  What  is  it  ?•' 

"  I  tried  to  put  my  knife  on  the  rail  here,  while 
I  gripped  the  line  I  was  to  cut,  when  it  tugged  at 
my  hand  like  a  live  thing.  In  a  fright  I  let  go,  and 
away  it  flew  toward  the  shore.  Oh,  we've  reached 
the  Devil's  country.  Why  ever  did  I  leave  Eng- 
land ?" 

"  How  of  the  compass  ?" 

"  It  points  steady  to  that  rock." 

"  Master  captain  !  Master  captain  !"  shouted  the 
steward,  running  upon  deck.  "  The  fiend  is  in  the 
after-castle,  for  the  pans  and  the  knives  and  a  blun- 
derbuss and  two  cutlasses  that  were  loose  have  leaped 
against  the  forward  panelling  and  stick  there  as  if 
rivets  were  through  them.  'Tis  wizard's  work.  Let 
us  pray,  all." 

327 


Myths  and  Legends 

A  sudden  commotion  was  seen  among  the  sailors 
at  that  moment.  The  cannon  balls  had  rolled  for- 
ward to  the  break  of  the  forecastle,  and  the  two  guns 
themselves — the  ship's  armament  against  the  pirates 
of  China  and  Sulu — were  straining  at  their  stays. 

"Heave  over  the  shot.  It'll  lighten  her,"  or- 
dered the  captain. 

The  crew  obeyed,  but  after  the  first  of  the  balls 
had  been  lifted  over  the  bulwarks,  they  had  scarce 
the  strength  to  cast  out  the  rest,  for  amazement 
overcame  them  on  seeing  the  shot  plucked  from  the 
man's  hands  and  blown  through  the  air  as  if  sent 
from  its  gun  toward  the  rock.  The  ship  was  leaping 
through  the  water,  though  the  breeze  was  from  the 
land.  One  after  another  the  men  fell  on  their  knees 
and  prayed  loudly,  the  captain  last  of  all.  Suddenly 
he  looked  up,  with  a  wondering  flash  in  his  eyes. 
He  sprang  to  his  feet,  plucked  an  iron  belaying-pin 
from  its  ledge,  held  it  up,  felt  it  pull,  let  go,  and  saw 
it  whirl  away  like  a  leaf  in  a  cyclone.  He  looked 
at  the  compass  ;  the  needle  pointed  straight  toward 
the  black  and  glistening  cliff  now  lowering  not  more 
than  half  a  mile  ahead. 

"It's  the  guns,"  he  shrieked.  "Up  with  you. 
Cut  away  the  lashings.  Stave  down  the  bulwarks. 
Let  them  go." 

In  the  panic  there  was  no  stopping  to  argue  or  to 

question.     The  guns  were  freed,  and  they,  too,  went 

hurtling  through  the  air,  striking  the  rock  with  a 

clang.     The  captain  leaped  to  the  helm  and  put  it 

328 


In  the  Pacific 

hard  a-starboard.  The  ship's  pace  slackened,  she 
curved  gracefully  around,  and  headed  from  the  threat- 
ening coast.  "  Shake  out  all  sail,  lads,  for  we're  free 
at  last,  by  God's  good  grace." 

Though  trembling  and  confused,  the  sailors  man- 
aged to  hoist  sail,  and  on  a  gentle  wind  from  the 
east  they  left  that  coast  never  more  to  venture  near 
it.  The  captain's  face  lost  its  knots  and  seams,  by 
slow  degrees  the  color  of  it  returned, — a  color 
painted  upon  it,  especially  about  the  nose,  by  many 
winds,  much  sunshine,  and  uncounted  bottles  of 
strong  waters.  He  wiped  his  brow  and  drew  a  big 
breath.  "  It  comes  to  me,  now,"  he  said.  "  We've 
not  been  bewitched.  That  hill  beyond,  that's  robbed 
us  of  our  guns  and  anchor,  is  a  magnet, — the  biggest 
in  the  world." 

In  an  earthquake,  several  years  later,  the  magnet- 
mountain  disappeared. 

TWO   RUNAWAYS   FROM    MANILA 

THE  name  Corregidor,  which  stands  for  mayor, 
albeit  the  translation  is  corrector,  is  applied 
to  the  gateway  to  Manila.      Thus  named   it  was  a 
place    to  inspire   a  wholesome  fear   in  the  breasts 
of  dignitaries,  for  on  at  least  two  occasions  proud 
and  refractory  bishops  were  sent  there  in  exile  to 
endure  a  season  of  correction  and  repentance.     It 
was  thought  to  be  a  desert.    In  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury the  treasure  galleon  arriving  at  Manila,  after  a 
329 


Myths  and  Legends 

voyage  of  months  from  Mexico,  brought  a  family 
from  that  country.  One  of  the  daughters  of  this 
house  of  Velez  was  a  girl  with  a  bit  of  human  na- 
ture in  her  composition,  for  Maria  was  prone  to 
flirting,  and  had  no  affection  for  sermons.  In  order 
to  repress  her  high  spirits  and  love  of  mischief,  she 
was  sent  by  her  father  to  the  convent  of  Santa  Clara, 
which  had  been  founded  in  1621  (a  few  years  before 
this  incident).  The  parent  even  hoped  that  she 
might  qualify  as  a  nun. 

It  was  not  the  right  convent,  for  Fray  Sanchez, 
one  of  the  fathers,  who  said  the  offices  in  the  chapel, 
was  a  Franciscan  friar,  young,  handsome,  and  not  an 
ascetic.  The  novice  was  always  prompt  when  he 
said  mass,  and  often  when  her  pretty  head  should 
have  been  bowed  in  prayer  she  was  peeping  over 
the  edge  of  her  breviary,  following  the  graceful 
motions  of  the  brother  as  he  shone  in  full  canonicals 
in  the  candle-light,  and  thrilling  at  the  sound  of  his 
rich,  low  voice.  The  priest  several  times  caught 
the  glance  of  those  eyes,  so  black,  so  liquid,  saw  the 
long  fringe  of  lashes  fall  across  them,  saw  the  face 
bend  behind  the  prayer-book  in  a  vain  endeavor  to 
hide  a  flush,  realized  what  a  pretty  face  it  was,  and 
went  to  his  cell  with  a  vague  aching  at  his  heart. 
He  sought  Maria  among  the  pupils  to  give  spirit- 
ual advice,  or  she  sought  him  to  ask  it, — it  little 
matters, — and  so  the  first  full  moon  looked  into  a 
corner  of  the  convent  garden  and  saw,  despite  the 
swaying  shadow  of  vines  and  palms,  that  the  friar 
330 


In  the  Pacific 

was  making  confession  to  the  nun, — a  confession  of 
love.  The  face  that  had  peered  above  the  prayer- 
book  was  lifted  to  his,  a  white  arm  stole  about  his 
neck  :  it  was  the  answering  confession.  The  priest 
strained  her  to  his  breast  and  half  stifled  her  with 
kisses. 

These  raptures  were  interrupted  by  the  retiring 
bell,  and  they  hastily  returned  to  the  convent  by  sepa- 
rate ways.  It  was  the  last  night  they  expected  to 
spend  beneath  that  roof,  for  a  galleon  was  to  sail  for 
Mexico  in  a  day  or  two,  and  they  had  agreed  to  elope. 
Dressed  in  worldly  garb,  which  she  concealed  under 
the  robe  and  cowl  of  a  monk,  Maria  slipped  through 
the  garden  gate  next  day,  met  her  lover,  ran  to  the 
shore,  where  a  boat  had  been  tied,  crossed  with  him 
to  Camaya,  the  ship  being  promised  there  for  a  fag 
end  of  cargo,  and  prayed  for  a  quick  departure  from 
the  Philippines.  In  vain.  They  fell  into  the  hands 
of  unfriendly  natives,  who,  having  learned  to  dis- 
trust the  Spanish,  were  always  ready  to  wreak  small 
injuries  on  them  when  the  chance  afforded.  These 
natives  attempted  to  separate  the  pair  and  drag  the 
girl  to  their  huts.  The  friar  attacked  them  with 
spirit,  but  the  brown  men  were  too  many  for  him, 
and  in  the  melee  both  he  and  Maria  were  wounded. 

A  boat  was  seen  approaching.  The  assailants 
fled,  leaving  the  friar,  bleeding  and  weak,  but  kneel- 
ing beside  his  mistress,  whose  white  skin  was  splashed 
and  striped  with  red,  and  whose  liquid  eyes  stared 
vacantly  at  the  sky.  As  the  boat  touched  the  shore 


In  the  Pacific 

the  corregidor  leaped  from  it,  and  the  friar  now  con- 
fronted a  new  peril.  His  flight  had  been  discovered, 
the  town-crier  had  bawled  it  through  the  streets, 
commanding  the  people  to  refuse  shelter  to  the 
guilty  pair  under  heavy  penalty,  and,  to  enforce 
their  return,  the  mayor  had  brought  with  him  twelve 
soldiers  of  the  garrison.  The  loaded  arquebuses  of 
the  men  were  not  needed.  Feeble,  sore  in  body 
and  spirit,  repentant,  the  monk  surrendered,  Maria 
was  lifted  into  the  boat,  and  the  company  returned 
to  Manila. 

There  it  was  decided  that  the  monk  should  be 
sent  to  an  inland  mission,  that  in  the  lifting  of  souls 
to  a  finer  faith  the  stain  of  human  love  that  had 
fallen  upon  his  own  soul  might  be  wiped  away.  As 
to  the  girl,  her  good  looks  and  gay  disposition  had 
proved  the  undoing  of  one  devotee.  She  was  to 
have  no  chance  to  enslave  another ;  so  she  was  sent 
back  to  Mexico,  forced  to  enter  a  cloistered  nunnery, 
and  so  ended  her  life  in  loneliness  and  sanctity.  The 
incident  has  left  its  impress  on  the  names  about  the 
harbor,  Corregidor  being  so  called  for  the  officer 
who  pursued  and  arrested  the  runaways,  Camaya 
being  rechristened  Mariveles, — which,  you  see,  is 
Maria  Velez, — while  two  rocks  beyond  the  Boca 
Grande  are  named  for  the  friar  and  his  would-be 
bride, — Fraile  and  Monja :  monk  and  nun. 


332 


In  the  Pacific 

THE   CHRISTIANIZING   OF    WONG 

IN  the  city  of  Cebu  the  Chinese,  who  made  an 
early  settlement,  accepted  the  prevalent  religion 
in  order  to  keep  peace  with  the  authorities.  In  fact, 
it  was  a  choice  between  going  to  church  and  going 
back  to  China.  Incidentally  to  their  evangelization 
a  number  of  them  were  cast  into  prison,  their  shops 
and  houses  were  rifled,  and  laws  were  enacted  deny- 
ing rights  and  privileges  to  all  Mongols  who  refused 
Christian  baptism.  Among  the  refractory  citizens 
was  a  Chinese  trader  named  Wong.  So  far  as  any- 
body could  see,  he  led  as  moral  a  life  as  a  Chinaman 
can  endure  comfortably  ;  he  was  good  to  his  family, 
good  to  himself,  he  was  sober,  he  would  overreach  a 
Spaniard  when  he  could,  but  when  he  had  given  his 
word  he  kept  it ;  he  burned  incense  before  joss, 
he  read  the  analects  of  Kung  Foo  Too  and  Mang 
Tse,  and  worshipped  his  ancestors  ;  he  never  stole 
or  used  any  kind  of  profanity  that  moral  Spaniards 
could  understand.  For  all  this  he  was  nagged  and 
worried  constantly,  and  could  hardly  take  a  walk 
without  being  pursued  by  friars  who  requested  alms 
for  their  charities  in  so  pointed  a  manner  that  he 
contributed  with  celerity,  if  with  an  inward  lack  of 
willingness.  If  he  had  been  an  every-day  Chinaman 
he  would  have  been  killed,  or  prisoned,  or  exiled, 
or  deported,  but  he  had  an  excellent  trade,  and,  in 
spite  of  his  enforced  outlays  for  masses  and  mission- 
aries, was  growing  richer  all  the  time.  The  cus- 
333 


Myths  and  Legends 

toms  officers  thrived  on  the  duties  that  he  paid,  and 
waxed  exceeding  fat. 

One  elderly  priest  in  Cebu  had  a  genuine  concern 
for  the  welfare  of  this  prosperous  but  benighted  soul. 
He  called  at  his  shop,  he  barred  his  way  in  the  street, 
he  argued,  he  cited,  he  appealed,  but  to  no  effect. 
Wong  answered  that,  although  a  heathen,  he  was 
doing  a  better  business  than  any  one  else ;  so  what 
was  the  use  of  changing  gods  ?  And  with  a  heart- 
deep  sigh  he  requested  the  clergyman  to  change  the 
subject.  Seeing,  at  last,  that  all  customary  methods 
of  conversion  were  doomed  to  failure,  the  friar  be- 
took himself  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Nicholas,  and  asked 
him  to  do  something  that  should  turn  this  poor  soul 
to  the  faith.  St.  Nicholas  praised  his  petitioner's 
zeal,  and  promised  to  work  a  miracle.  The  friar 
possessed  his  soul  in  patience,  and  the  conversion 
came  that  very  week.  Wong  was  assailed  in  his 
office  by  five  robbers,  armed  with  knives  and  daubed 
with  blood,  to  show  that  they  intended  neither  to 
give  nor  ask  for  quarter.  He  had  sold  many  goods 
that  day,  and  they  had  come  for  his  money.  Wong 
reached  for  the  sword  that  always  hung  within  his 
grasp,  but  to  his  dismay  it  was  gone.  St.  Nicholas 
or  the  friar  had  hidden  it.  He  glanced  rapidly  about 
the  room,  but  saw  nothing  that  he  could  oppose  to 
the  knives  of  the  desperadoes,  and  even  if  he  had, 
they  were  five  to  one,  so  his  escape  from  a  cruel 
death  seemed  impossible.  Just  then  the  robbers 
were  struck  into  a  stupor,  for  on  the  wall  behind 
334 


In  the  Pacific 

the  merchant  a  light  was  shining,  and  soft  music 
floated  through  the  room.  The  partition  opened, 
and  St.  Nicholas  stepped  within  the  apartment. 
Turning  to  the  Chinaman  the  visitant  said,  "Be- 
lieve in  the  true  faith,  Wong,  and  your  life  shall  be 
saved.  Believe  otherwise,  and  you  shall  die." 
Wong  changed  his  faith  in  one  second,  and  said  so. 
The  saint  waved  his  hand  toward  the  ruffians  and 
they  dropped  to  the  floor  in  a  faint,  whereupon 
Wong,  plucking  the  knife  from  the  hand  of  the 
nearest,  carefully  but  expeditiously  and  joyfully  cut 
the  throats  of  all  five,  called  in  his  neighbors  and 
persuaded  them  to  join  the  church  with  him. 
They  did  this  almost  immediately,  and  the  most 
popular  saint  among  the  Chinese  of  Cebu  is  still  St. 
Nicholas. 


THE   DEVIL'S   BRIDGE 

YOU  may  say  what  you  please,  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  Evil  One  never  appeared  in  the 
Philippines  until  after  the  Spanish  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  islands.  At  least,  this  applies  to  Luzon. 
And,  strange  to  tell,  he  has  not  been  seen  there  since 
the  Spanish  left.  Some  will  have  it  that  he  was 
smitten  into  a  despairing  bashfulness  during  Weyler's 
administration,  and  that  when  the  governor  went 
home  with  a  couple  of  million  dollars  in  his  valise — 
the  savings  from  his  salary — the  Devil  went  home 
likewise,  awe-struck.  His  Satanic  Majesty's  last  re- 
335 


Myths  and  Legends 

corded  exploit  occurred  in  the  view  of  three  men, 
of  whom  one  may  still  be  alive  to  vouch  for  it. 
They  were  farmers  of  Wild  Laguna,  a  few  miles 
above  Manila,  and  on  one  memorable  day  were  cut- 
ting wood  in  the  ravine  near  by, — a  deep  gulch 
through  which  babbles  a  stone-choked  stream.  This 
glen  has  precipitous  sides,  but  is  so  thickly  overhung 
with  green  that  it  is  almost  like  a  verdant  cave. 

While  they  were  resting — and  the  Filipino's  abil- 
ity to  rest  is  one  of  his  striking  qualities — they  were 
startled  by  the  hurried  advance  of  something,  or 
somebody,  on  the  bank.  There  was  a  swish  and 
crash  of  undergrowth,  a  hobbling  stamp,  and  some- 
thing that  sounded  like  the  smiting  of  leaves  with  a 
club.  At  first  the  farmers  thought  that  a  water  buf- 
falo had  run  away  from  some  plantation  and  was 
angry  because  he  could  not  descend  the  craggy  sides 
and  reach  the  water.  Then  came  a  volley  of  exple- 
tives in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  in  a  voice  so  deep 
and  harsh  that  the  hair  of  the  three  heads  bristled, 
and  three  pairs  of  eyes  goggled  with  fright.  The 
farmer  who  was  good  crossed  himself;  the  one  who 
was  bad  turned  white  and  tried  to  remember  how 
prayers  were  said  ;  the  one  who  was  betwixt-and- 
between  clung  to  the  stone  on  which  he  was  seated 
and  held  his  breath ;  for  a  tall,  lank  personage,  with 
overhanging  brows,  slanting  eyes,  long  chin  and  nose, 
and  wrathful  aspect,  was  striding  to  and  fro  on  the 
edge  of  the  ravine,  looking  at  the  opposite  bank  as 
if  trying  to  decide  whether  or  not  he  could  leap  that 
336 


In  the  Pacific 

distance.  He  was  scowling,  gnashing  his  teeth,  and 
brandishing  his  arms.  Any  Spaniard  might  have 
done  as  much,  and  brandished  a  sword  besides ;  but 
the  terrible  thing  about  this  gentleman  was  the  great 
length  of  tail,  with  a  dart  at  its  tip,  that  he  was  flour- 
ishing among  the  bushes,  for  only  one  being,  on  the 
earth  or  under  it,  was  known  to  have  a  tail  like  that. 
As  if  to  leave  no  doubt,  the  stranger,  in  stamping 
on  the  ground,  lifted  his  leg  so  high  that  the  watch- 
ers could  see  that  it  ended,  not  in  a  foot,  but  a  hoof. 
It  was  Satan  himself!  The  farmers  did  not  dare  to 
tremble,  but  each  shrank  within  himself  as  far  as  he 
could  and  thought  upon  his  sins,  the  worst  of  the  trio 
with  the  least  compunction,  because  he  was  not  con- 
scious of  any  immorality  in  robbing  Spaniards.  As 
he  tramped  back  and  forth,  the  devil  now  and  then 
looked  up  into  the  branches,  as  if  guessing  the  height 
of  the  trees.  Presently  he  stopped  before  the  tallest, 
levelled  his  finger  at  it,  and  cried  with  a  stentorian 
voice  a  command  in  words  that  belong  to  none  of 
the  forty  or  fifty  languages  and  dialects  of  the  islands. 
Then  the  souls  of  the  spectators  fell,  like  chilling 
currents,  and  their  hearts  swelled  like  balloons  and 
arose  into  their  throats,  and  there  was  no  joy  in 
them ;  for  the  great  tree  bent  slowly  down  and 
swung  itself  entirely  across  the  chasm.  Its  reach 
was  great,  and  Satan  skipped  along  the  trunk  as 
spryly  as  a  cat  on  a  fence,  his  arms  and  tail  held 
out  for  balance  and  twitching  nervously.  Half-way 
over  he  spied  the  three  spectators  and  stopped. 
=~  337 


Myths  and  Legends 

Their  circulation  stopped  also.  He  grinned  from 
car  to  ear,  showing  two  rows  of  tusk-like  teeth, 
shook  his  fist  playfully,  and  shouted  a  laugh  so  loud, 
so  awful,  that  they  believed  their  last  moment  had 
come.  But  it  had  not.  Their  hair  turned  white, 
to  be  sure,  and  they  took  on  fifty  years'  growth  of 
wrinkles ;  but  the  Devil  was  after  bigger  game.  He 
scampered  over  the  arching  trunk,  disappeared  on 
the  farther  side,  and  hurried  off  at  a  run  toward 
Manila,  where  a  certain  rich  lawyer  was  rumored  to 
be  dying.  From  later  whisperings  it  appears  that 
His  Majesty  was  not  late. 

The  strange  part  of  the  incident  is  that,  although 
the  tree  was  thus  ill-used  to  serve  the  Devil's  con- 
venience, and  is  marked  along  its  bark  by  his  cloven 
feet,  it  was  not  blasted,  but  to  this  hour  is  green  and 
flourishing.  The  Devil's  Bridge,  as  everybody  calls 
it,  is  an  arboreal  wonder,  curving  lightly  and  grace- 
fully over  the  chasm,  its  branches  resting  on  the 
bank  opposite  to  its  root,  some  of  them  growing  up- 
side down,  but  all  as  green  and  healthy  as  those  of 
any  tree  that  the  Devil  spared  when  he  was  looking 
for  a  way  to  cross  the  ravine.  Had  he  waded  the 
stream  he  not  only  would  have  wet  his  feet,  which 
would  have  been  unpleasant,  but  would  have  touched 
water  that  had  once  been  blessed,  and  that  would 
have  been  torture.  The  bad  farmer  did  not  survive 
this  spectacle  by  many  years,  though  it  is  not  related 
that  he  reformed.  The  fair-to-middling  one  lasted 
for  a  while  longer.  The  good  one  may  yet  be  in  the 
338 


In  the  Pacific 

land  of  the  living,  unless  he  enlisted  under  Agui- 
naldo,  which  is  not  likely,  because  old  men  cannot 
run  fast  enough  to  be  effective  members  of  the  Fili- 
pino army. 

THE    GREAT   EARTHQUAKE 

AFTER  months  of  fighting,  Li  Ma  Hong,  the 
Chinese  pirate,  and  his  six  thousand  follow- 
ers had  been  beaten  out  of  Philippine  waters.  Ma- 
nila was  celebrating  the  victory  on  this  last  night  of 
November,  1645.  The  church  bells  had  been  clang- 
ing and  chiming,  the  windows  had  been  lighted,  flags 
and  pennants  had  streamed  from  the  house-tops, 
sounds  of  music  and  cries  of  rejoicing  were  heard,  a 
thousand  fairy  lamps  starred  the  darkness  and  quiv- 
ered in  the  Pasig.  The  flag  of  Spain  had  been  car- 
ried through  the  streets  in  solemn  procession,  the 
cathedral  altar  had  smoked  with  incense,  the  friars 
had  chanted  the  "Te  Deum,"  but  now  all  was  gayety 
and  music  and  perfume.  A  ball  was  among  the  fes- 
tivities, and  military  and  civic  officers,  pranked  in  the 
lace  and  bullion  so  dear  to  the  Latins,  were  going 
through  the  narrow  ways  with  their  ladies  on  their 
arms.  Taking  no  part  in  the  joyous  hurly-burly, 
two  men  walked  apart,  near  the  cathedral,  in  talk. 
One  was  a  father  in  the  church  ;  the  other,  secretary 
and  major-domo  of  the  governor.  The  calling  of 
the  one,  the  age  and  dignity  of  the  other,  to  say 
nothing  of  an  old  wound  that  gave  a  hitch  and 
339 


Myths  and  Legends 

drag  to  his  step,  forbade  their  mingling  with  the 
throng. 

The  secretary  spoke  :  "  No,  father,  I  hardly  agree 
with  your  view.  That  heaven  has  been  on  our  side 
I  admit,  since  we  have  conquered  the  infidels,  seized 
their  treasure,  and  strewn  their  corpses  on  our 
shores.  But  that  the  blessed  St.  Francis  interposes 
in  our  behalf,  I  doubt." 

"  This  is  dangerous  doctrine, — a  reflection  on  our 
order.  We  have  prayed  daily  for  the  success  of  the 
Spanish  arms,  and  although  we  addressed  the  Virgin 
and  all  the  saints,  the  statue  of  St.  Francis  is  the  only 
one  that  moved  while  we  were  at  prayer " 

"  With  your  eyes  on  the  ground?" 

"  The  sacristan  saw  it.  Furthermore,  let  me  tell 
you  that  the  figure  of  the  saint  owned  by  the  worthy 
Indian,  Alonzo  Cuyapit,  at  his  house  in  Dilao,  was 
stirred  to  tears  last  night." 

"  Tears  !     For  victory  ?" 

"  I  fear,  for  some  reason  worthy  of  tears." 

"  And  your  imaginations  have  nothing  to  do  with 
all  this  ?  Men  who  are  wasted  with  vigils  and  fast- 
ing"— here  the  secretary  chuckled  and  made  as  if  he 
would  nudge  the  churchman  in  his  ample  paunch — 
"are  prone  to  see  what  common  men  cannot. 
Though  I  protest  that  when  I  eat  much  cheese  be- 
fore retiring  I  have  visions,  too.  But  not  always 
holy  ones." 

The  priest  answered  with  gravity,  "A  life  of  de- 
votion does  clear  the  vision.  It  opens  the  gates  of 
34° 


In  the  Pacific 

heaven.  I  fear,  senor,  that  too  many  in  this  doubt- 
ing age  are  affected  like  you, — that  a  study  of  phil- 
osophy and  ungodly  sciences  has  harmed  your  respect 
for  the  saints  and  the  church." 

"  By  no  means,  father.  All  I  maintain  is  that  the 
figure  of  St.  Francis  was  not  seen  in  the  thick  of  the 
battle,  as  some  of  the  friars  allege.  Good  sooth  ! 
What  do  they  know  of  battle  ?  Our  victories  were 
won  by  stout  Spanish  arms  and  good  Toledo  steel. 
All  praise  to  Heaven  that  we  had  the  power." 

The  priest  shook  his  head  and  sighed.  Then 
he  looked  curiously  into  the  sky.  The  stars  were 
shining,  save  in  the  south,  where  lightning  flickered 
in  a  bank  of  cloud,  and  there  was  no  threat  of 
storm.  Yet  in  the  air  was  a  curious  stagnation  that 
had  fallen  within  the  hour  and  brooded  over  the  city 
like  a  palpable  thing.  It  was  hot  and  close  and  life- 
less ;  stale  smells  from  the  streets  reeked  into  the 
nostrils,  and  from  the  Pasig  came  a  heavy,  sickish 
odor  of  river  vegetation. 

"  Sometimes  it  fills  me  with  a  fear  that  Heaven  has 
a  punishment  in  store  for  us,"  said  the  priest,  stop- 
ping in  his  walk  and  looking  meditatively  into  the 
distance,  where  the  lightning  now  played  more 
brightly.  "  We  have  grown  worldly.  We  have 
thought  less  of  serving  God  by  our  wars  than  of  in- 
creasing our  power  and  importance  in  the  eyes  of 
the  nations.  We  have  grown  proud.  We  are  in 
danger  of  losing  our  piety.  Pray  that  the  wrath  do 
not  fall." 


Myths  and  Legends 

"  With  all  my  heart, — especially  to-night.  Your 
blessing,  father.  And  sound  sleep." 

It  was  the  last  time  that  these  friends  were  to  walk 
together.  It  was  the  last  time  in  many  a  day  when 
Manila  would  be  in  gala.  At  midnight  the  greasy 
calm  that  lay  on  the  sea  was  broken  by  a  breeze 
which  ruffled  the  water  and  made  a  pleasant  stir  in 
the  trees  ashore.  It  eased  the  sultriness  of  the  night 
and  brought  rest  to  many  who  had  been  tossing  on 
their  beds,  excited  doubtless  by  the  shows  and  dis- 
sipations of  the  last  few  hours.  Presently  the  sleep- 
ers were  roused  again,  for  the  wind  was  rising  stead- 
ily ;  the  trees  were  writhing  and  wringing  their 
branches  in  what  was  surely  going  to  be  a  gale.  The 
lightning  was  near.  A  growl  of  thunder  could  be 
heard.  The  clock  boomed  the  hour  of  two.  Out 
of  an  intense  dark  leaped  a  bolt  of  green  fire,  and 
the  air  was  filled  with  baying  and  cannonade.  Al- 
most at  the  moment  the  earth  began  to  rock.  The 
city  awoke.  The  rocking  increased.  Roofs  began 
to  fall,  walls  to  bulge,  masonry  to  split  and  sway. 

"  The  earthquake  !  The  earthquake  !"  screamed 
a  thousand  voices,  and  with  cries  and  lamenting  the 
people  hurried  into  the  streets  and  fell  on  their  knees 
or  their  faces,  unable  to  stand  on  the  waving,  trem- 
bling ground.  It  was  an  hour  of  terror.  All  lights 
were  blown  out  by  the  storm  or  extinguished  in  the 
fall  of  houses,  save  one  or  two  of  baleful  meaning 
that  flickered  above  roofs  which  had  caught  fire. 
The  sea  could  be  heard  advancing  toward  the  land 
342 


In  the  Pacific 

with  tremendous  roaring,  driving  up  the  channel  of 
the  Pasig  and  overspreading  its  banks  on  either  side, 
while  far  below,  and  most  dreadful  of  all,  the  fall 
could  be  heard  of  pieces  of  the  earth's  crust  into 
pits  of  fire  and  the  vast  rumble  and  groan  of  a  world. 
Houses  crumbled,  people  were  pressed  to  death  and 
maimed  in  the  blackness,  streets  cracked  asunder, 
trees  were  uprooted,  chaos  was  come  again. 

In  the  morning  the  survivors  looked  upon  a  scene 
of  ruin  worse  than  any  wrought  by  the  pirates.  The 
sanctity  of  the  cathedral  had  not  saved  it.  Of  its 
imposing  walls  hardly  anything  remained.  A  heap 
of  masonry  marked  its  place.  Every  public  building 
was  destroyed.  Wretches  hurt  to  the  death  were 
pinned  under  fallen  stones  and  timbers,  and  many, 
willing  enough  to  relieve  them,  were  too  dazed  and 
agonized  by  their  own  pains  and  misfortunes  to  pull 
their  wits  together.  Spain  had  enjoyed  her  triumphs. 
Now  her  calamities  had  begun. 

On  the  night  before  the  catastrophe,  Alonzo  Cuy- 
apit,  a  rich  Indian  of  Dilao,  a  suburb  of  the  city, 
and  his  friend,  the  chaplain  of  the  San  Francisco 
Convent,  were  at  prayers  together  before  a  statue  of 
St.  Francis,  that  was  the  Indian's  dearest  pride.  He 
had  shrined  it  fittingly  in  his  home,  with  flowers  and 
candles  about  it,  and  adored  it  daily.  The  statue 
was  of  life-size,  the  work  of  an  adept  carver ;  was 
brilliantly  painted  and  gemmed,  and  had  about  the 
neck  a  rosary  from  which  hung  a  cross  of  polished 
gold.  So  many  miracles  of  healing  had  been  per- 
343 


Myths  and  Legends 

formed  by  this  figure  that  its  renown  had  gone 
through  all  Luzon. 

While  Cuyapit  and  the  chaplain  were  on  their 
knees  a  tremor  shook  the  floor.  Slight  earthquakes 
of  this  kind  were  not  unusual.  Though  the  walls 
of  the  house  rattled,  the  statue  remained  fixed  and 
still.  Another  jar  was  felt  in  the  ground,  and  rais- 
ing their  hands  to  the  saint,  the  petitioners  begged 
him  fervently  to  intercede  against  a  dangerous  shock. 
Presently  they  lifted  their  eyes,  and  were  struck 
dumb  with  amazement,  for  the  statue  had  unclasped 
its  hands,  the  one  pointing  toward  Manila,  as  if  in 
warning ;  the  other  holding  the  golden  cross  toward 
heaven,  as  if  in  an  appeal  for  mercy.  A  halo,  so 
bright  as  to  dazzle  the  beholders,  played  about  the 
head,  the  lips  moved,  and  from  the  upturned  eyes 
tears  trickled  down  the  cheeks.  Cuyapit  and  the 
priest  arose  and  tried  to  stanch  these  tears,  but  the 
cloth  they  used  was  soon  as  wet  as  if  they  had  just 
taken  it  from  the  river.  Then  the  statue  raised  its 
arms  high  over  its  head,  as  in  a  last  appeal  for  mercy 
to  the  world,  while  the  tears  gushed  in  such  a  stream 
that  they  made  a  continuous  fall  to  the  floor.  A  look 
of  horror  wrung  the  face,  as  if  the  prayer  had  been 
refused  ;  and,  extending  its  hands  in  benediction,  the 
saint  toppled  from  his  pedestal  and  was  broken  into 
fragments. 

When  these  occurrences  had  been  told  by  Cuy- 
apit in  the  Church  of  San  Francisco,  under  an  oath 
before  the  Virgin,  the  pieces  were  carried  in  rcvcr- 
344 


In  the  Pacific 

ential  procession  to  Manila,  and  the  miracle  of 
San  Francisco  of  the  Tears  is  accepted  there  as 
history. 

SUPPRESSING   MAGIC   IN   MANILA 


of  all  kinds  are  easily  swayed,  but  it 
is  said  that  nowhere  is  it  so  easy  to  rouse  a 
panic  or  a  revolution  as  in  Manila.  Several  times 
during  the  earlier  months  of  the  American  occupa- 
tion vague  fears  spread  through  the  city,  people  ran 
to  their  homes  or  locked  themselves  in  their  shops 
in  terror,  lights  were  put  out,  armed  guards  were 
posted  ;  then,  after  a  few  hours,  everybody  asked 
everybody  else  what  the  matter  had  been,  and  nobody 
knew. 

In  1820  a  strange  scene  was  enacted  in  the  Phil- 
ippine capital.  People  assembled  in  groups  at  even- 
ing and  whispered  mysteriously.  Gowned  friars 
moved  from  group  to  group,  but  whether  encour- 
aging or  expostulating  it  was  impossible  for  one  to 
say,  unless  he  understood  Spanish  or  Tagalog.  The 
captain  of  an  American  ship  that  was  taking  on  its 
load  of  hemp  reported  to  a  neighbor  captain,  who 
sailed  under  the  cross  of  St.  George,  that  there  had 
been  a  violation  of  the  government  order  against  the 
importing  of  Protestant  Bibles  and  pocket-pistols,  — 
two  things  taboo  in  the  country  at  that  time.  This, 
however,  may  have  been  the  Yankee  captain's  joke. 
As  the  night  deepened  torches  were  seen  flitting 
345 


Myths  and  Legends 

hither  and  thither,  the  crowds  thickened,  the  whis- 
pers and  hushed  talk  increased  by  degrees  to  a  wide- 
spread, menacing  growl,  then  arose  to  a  roar.  Now 
drums  were  heard  in  the  barracks,  and  the  light, 
quick  tread  of  marching  feet  could  be  distinguished 
through  the  babble  of  voices.  The  mob  was  slowly 
wedging  itself  into  one  of  the  streets  before  an  inn, 
and  just  at  the  doors  of  that  hostelry  the  noise  was 
loudest  and  most  threatening. 

Presently  came  a  crash.  The  building  had  been 
entered.  Instantly  there  were  shouts  and  cries,  and 
the  throng  seemed  fairly  to  boil  with  anger.  In  the 
light  of  candles  that  shone  through  windows  the  faces 
lifted  toward  the  tavern  were  drawn  and  wolfish. 
Shots  were  heard.  The  mob  was  shaken,  as  a  wood 
is  shaken  by  a  gale,  but  there  was  no  retreat.  There 
could  be  none.  The  people  were  packed  too  densely. 
Now  a  glint  of  bayonets  was  seen  at  one  end  of  the 
street,  and  some  sharp  orders  rang  out.  This  was 
more  effective.  The  throng  began  to  thin  away  at 
the  farther  end,  and  those  nearest  to  the  soldiers  at- 
tempted to  break  through  the  line,  loudly  declaring 
that  they  were  merely  spectators,  and  did  not  know 
what  had  happened.  But  in  another  moment  every- 
body knew.  Two  dark  shapes  were  passed  out  at  the 
inn  door,  and  were,  in  some  fashion,  pushed  along 
over  the  heads  of  the  multitude  to  its  freer  edge. 
These  shapes  had  recently  been  men.  With  ropes 
about  their  necks  they  were  dragged  at  a  run  through 
the  streets.  More  houses  were  attacked.  Other 
346 


In  the  Pacific 

forms  were  found  lying  on  the  earth,  pulseless, 
bloody,  after  the  mob  had  passed.  The  military 
was,  seemingly,  unable  to  head  it  off  or  give  effec- 
tive chase.  Flames  now  lighted  various  quarters  of 
the  city,  and  shots  were  frequently  heard.  It  was 
a  night  of  terror.  History  speaks  of  it  as  a  night 
of  rioting.  Many  declare  that  it  was  a  St.  Bar- 
tholomew massacre,  on  a  smaller  scale,  and  that  the 
Protestants  who  were  killed  that  night  were  put  to 
death  at  the  instigation  of  the  friars.  Tradition 
relates  that  when  the  sun  arose  the  people,  num- 
bering thousands,  marched  in  triumph  through  the 
city,  following  a  dozen  of  their  number  who  bore 
in  their  hands  the  phials  in  which  two  French 
naturalists,  recently  landed  in  Luzon,  had  preserved 
a  number  of  snakes  and  insects  for  their  scientific 

Collection. 

There  was  the  mischief, — in  those  jars  and 
Nobody  would  put  a  serpent  or  a  scorpion  into  alco- 
hol except  for  some  grim  purpose,  and  that  purpose 
could  be  nothing  other  than  black  magic.  Hence 
the  raid  on  the  inn  ;  hence  the  killing  of  the  natur- 
alists and  of  other  people  suspected  of  complicity  or 
sympathy  with  forbidden  arts ;  hence  the  state  of 
education  of  Luzon. 


347 


Myths  and  Legends 

FAITH   THAT   KILLED 

BACK  in  the  30*5  an  emigrant  of  some  account 
arrived  in  Manila.  He  was  a  young  doctor 
of  medicine  who  had  just  won  his  sheepskin  in  Sal- 
amanca, and  had  been  persuaded  that  there  was  small 
hope  of  a  living  for  him  in  a  province  where  the 
people  were  too  poor  to  be  ill  and  too  lazy  to  die. 
The  Philippines  had  been  suggested  as  a  promising 
field  for  his  practice,  and  realizing  that  he  needed 
practice  he  made  the  long  journey  around  Good 
Hope  and  reached  the  Luzon  capital  nearly  penni- 
less, but  full  of  gratitude  and  expectancy.  Having 
secured  lodgings,  to  which  he  at  once  affixed  his 
shingle,  he  sallied  forth  to  see  the  town  and  its 
people,  and  one  of  the  first  of  its  inhabitants  to  claim 
his  attention,  though  she  claimed  it  unwittingly,  was 
a  girl  of  the  lower  class  who  was  walking  along  the 
street  with  an  easy,  elastic  step,  and  in  seeming 
health,  yet  who  was  evidently  suffering  from  a  hem- 
orrhage, for  at  every  few  paces  she  paused  and  spat 
blood.  Her  bearing  and  expression  were  in  odd 
contrast  with  her  peril,  for  she  seemed  indifferent  to 
the  danger. 

Prompted  by  compassion  as  well  as  by  a  profes- 
sional interest,  the  physician  followed  the  invalid, 
expecting  at  every  moment  to  see  her  fall  or  hear 
her  beg  for  help,  his  wonder  at  the  stoicism  and  en- 
durance of  the  Filipino  growing  constantly.  When 
she  reached  her  home,  an  humble  house  in  a  poor 
348 


In  the  Pacific 

quarter  of  the  city,  he  begged  immediate  audience 
with  her  parents,  who  were,  unfortunately,  ac- 
quainted with  the  Spanish  tongue,  and  told  them 
it  was  his  duty  to  warn  them  that  the  girl  had  not 
twenty-four  hours  to  live  ;  that  she  was  afflicted 
with  a  mortal  illness  ;  that  a  priest  should  be  called 
at  once.  The  girl's  cheeks  were  ruddy,  she  was  in 
good  spirits,  and  the  old  people  were  inclined  to  re- 
sent the  warning  as  a  joke,  being  an  exceeding  poor 
one.  The  visitor  explained  that  he  was  a  medical 
man,  that  he  was  actuated  by  the  most  charitable  of 
motives,  that  he  would  do  everything  in  his  power 
to  delay  the  fatal  ending  of  the  disease,  but  that  res- 
toration to  health  was  impossible. 

When  this  dreadful  news  was  broken  to  the  girl 
she  had  a  violent  fit  of  weeping,  then  hysterics, 
then  a  long  fainting  spell,  and  sank  into  a  decline  so 
swift  that  the  parents  were  in  despair.  Neighbors 
flocked  in  to  offer  condolences  and  comforts ;  a 
priest  received  the  young  woman's  confession  and 
performed  the  last  rites  ;  the  doctor  plied  his  patient 
with  drugs,  fomentations,  and  stimulants ;  father, 
mother,  and  friends  groaned,  prayed,  and  tore  their 
hair.  All  the  time  the  poor  creature  sank  steadily, 
the  color  left  her  face,  her  breath  grew  labored,  and 
as  night  fell  the  doctor's  warning  was  fulfilled, — she 
was  dead. 

In  a  single  day  the  fame  of  this  wonderful  physi- 
cian spread  through  all  the  city,  and  people  flocked 
to  his  lodging  with  money  and  diseases.  He  was 
349 


Myths  and  Legends 

dazzled  at  the  prospect  of  riches.  After  three  or 
four  years  of  this  kind  of  thing,  if  the  tax  man  did 
not  hear  too  much  of  his  success,  he  could  return  to 
Spain  and  live  in  comfortable  retirement.  Alas  !  for 
human  hopes,  he  returned  sooner  than  he  had  in- 
tended. -A  few  days  after  the  death  of  his  first 
patient  somebody  asked  how  he  forecast  her  fate  so 
exactly. 

"  It  was  easy  enough, — she  spat  blood,"  he  an- 
swered. 

"  Are  you  sure  it  was  blood  ?" 

"  Certainly.     It  was  red." 

"  Ah,  sefior,  every  one  spits  red  in  Manila." 

"  Bah !" 

"  Oh,  it  is  true  !  Everybody  chews  the  buyo 
leaf,  which  is  like  the  betel  of  India,  that  you  have 
heard  of,  just  as  everybody  smokes  in  Luzon.  The 
juice  of  the  buyo  is  red." 

Then  the  doctor  realized  that  he  had  killed  his 
patient  by  making  her  believe  she  was  doomed  to 
die,  and  with  the  earnings  of  his  brief  career  in  the 
Philippines  he  bought  a  passage  back  to  Spain  in  the 
same  ship  that  had  carried  him  to  the  East.  So,  if 
you  hear  that  a  person  is  ill,  but  if  your  informant 
winks  and  says  that  he  is  spitting  red,  you  may  be- 
lieve that  the  invalid  will  be  out  after  a  good  sleep 
and  a  little  bromide. 


350 


In  the  Pacific 

THE   WIDOW   VELARDE'S    HUSBAND 

ENCHANTED  Lake,  near  Los  Banos,  on  the 
Pasig,  fills  an  ancient  crater  and  is  an  object  of 
natural  interest.  Its  enchantment,  so  far  as  is  generally 
known,  consists  in  the  visits  of  Widow  Velarde's  hus- 
band to  its  shores,  and  his  occasional  moonlight  excur- 
sions over  its  waters  in  a  boat  that  has  the  same  pale 
green  shine  as  himself.  This  Velarde  was  a  fisherman 
and  being  somewhat  of  a  gallant  he  had  roused  the 
mortal  jealousy  of  his  wife.  In  revenge  for  his 
supposed  slights  she  engaged  two  of  his  friends  to 
confer  on  her  the  joys  of  widowhood,  which  they 
agreed  to  do  for  a  consideration.  The  amount 
promised  was  six  dollars,  but  the  preliminary  nego- 
tiations appear  to  have  been  hasty,  for  when  these 
worthies  had  earned  the  money,  having  held  the  un- 
fortunate Velarde  under  the  water  until  he  ceased  to 
bubble,  the  thrifty  woman  wanted  them  to  accept 
three  dollars  apiece.  They  held  stoutly  for  six  dol- 
lars apiece.  The  widow  would  not  pay  it.  There 
was  a  long  and  undignified  wrangle, — disputes  over 
funeral  bills  are  often  warranted,  but  are  seldom 
seemly, — and  it  ended  in  the  angry  departure  of  the 
fishermen,  without  even  their  three  dollars,  to  lodge 
a  complaint  against  the  Widow  Velarde  for  cheating. 
Now,  would  you  suppose  that  two  men,  having 
just  murdered  a  fellow-creature,  would  go  to  a  mag- 
istrate to  complain  about  the  payment  ?  These  Fil- 
ipinos did  it.  They  went  to  a  judge  at  Los  Banos 


Myths  and  Legends 

and  tried  to  get  an  order  for  the  woman's  arrest. 
The  judge,  fancying  this  must  be  a  kind  of  joke 
peculiar  to  Luzon,  said  he  would  think  over  the 
matter,  and  he  resumed  his  slumbers.  In  a  day  or 
two  he  learned  that  the  men  had  really  killed  their 
companion,  and  had  fallen  out  with  the  widow  on 
the  matter  of  terms.  They  meanwhile  had  learned 
that  their  act  was  contrary  to  white  man's  law  and 
had  escaped,  though  it  is  said  they  were  afterward 
caught  and  put  to  death.  Perhaps  it  is  the  disquiet 
caused  by  the  reflection  that  he  was  worth  no  more 
than  six  dollars  that  leads  the  extinguished  husband 
to  vex  the  scene  of  his  demise. 


THE   GRATEFUL   BANDITS 

MONSIEUR  DE  LA  GIRONIERE,  a  French 
planter  and  trader,  who  visited  the  Philip- 
pines a  lifetime  ago,  or  more,  told  stories  of  the 
islands  and  their  people  that  are  taken  in  these  days 
with  a  lump  of  salt.  Among  these  narrations  is  one 
pertaining  to  the  bandits  who  in  the  first  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  were  numerous  and  troublesome 
on  several  of  the  islands,  and  who  were  alternately 
harassed  and  befriended  by  the  officials, — chased 
when  they  had  money  and  well  treated  when  they 
had  parted  with  most  of  it  to  cool  the  sweating 
palms  of  authority.  Gironiere  was  visiting  the  cas- 
cades of  Yang  Yang  when  he  found  himself  sur- 
rounded by  brigands  who  were  chattering  volubly  and 
352 


In  the  Pacific 

pointing  to  his  horses.  They  did  not  at  first  offer 
violence,  but  presently  he  understood  that  soldiers 
were  in  chase  of  them,  and  they  were  considering 
whether  it  would  not  be  wise  to  kill  the  horses,  lest 
the  troop,  on  its  arrival,  should  seize  them  to  aid  in 
the  pursuit. 

Gironiere  could  not  afford  horses  often.  He 
eagerly  assured  the  thieves  that  he  would  not  give 
his  nags  to  the  military  ;  that  he  would,  on  the  con- 
trary, depart  by  the  road  over  which  he  had  come, 
in  order  to  avoid  meeting  the  soldiers,  and  this 
promise  he  made  on  the  honor  of  a  gentleman.  The 
leader  of  the  brigands  saluted,  and  the  Frenchman 
drove  away,  as  he  had  agreed,  the  thieves  watching 
him  until  he  was  out  of  sight.  For  months  after  this 
incident  he  had  no  trouble  with  the  natives.  His 
household  goods,  his  garden  products,  his  poultry 
were  spared.  Some  years  later,  when  he  had  defi- 
nitely cast  his  fortunes  with  the  Spaniards,  he  ac- 
cepted a  commission  as  captain  of  the  horse  guards 
at  Laguna,  and  it  then  became  his  duty  to  trouble 
the  very  robbers  who  once  had  spared  him.  Their 
fighting  was  usually  open,  and,  as  the  marksmanship 
on  both  sides  was  the  very  worst,  it  was  seldom 
that  anybody  was  hurt.  Truces  were  made,  as  in 
honorable  war,  and  the  leaders  corresponded  with 
one  another  as  to  terms  of  battle  or  surrender. 
One  unofficial  document  received  by  Gironiere  cau- 
tioned him  to  look  out  for  himself,  as  there  was  one 
in  the  bandit  ranks  who  was  ungrateful.  "  Beware 


Myths  and  Legends 

of  Pedro  Tumbaga,"  it  said.  "  He  has  ordered  us 
to  take  you  by  surprise  in  your  house.  This  warn- 
ing is  in  payment  for  your  kindness  at  the  cascades. 
You  kept  your  word.  We  are  ready  to  fight  you 
now,  as  you  would  fight  us ;  but  we  don't  strike  in 
the  back.  Tumbaga  will  shoot  you  from  hiding." 

Gironiere  was  a  crafty  person,  likewise  a  cautious 
one.  He  knew  where  to  send  an  answer  to  this 
epistle,  and  he  sent  it :  "  You  are  brave  men,  and  I 
thank  you.  I  do  not  fear  Tumbaga,  for  he  is  a 
coward.  How  can  you  keep  among  you  a  man  who 
would  shoot  another  in  the  back  ?"  Just  look  at  that 
for  slyness !  And  the  message  had  the  effect  he 
desired  and  expected.  Some  brave  bandit  got  behind 
a  tree  a  couple  of  weeks  afterward  and  shot  a  bullet 
through  Tumbaga.  Thus  was  the  power  of  the 
brigands  weakened,  the  safety  of  Gironiere  assured, 
and  good  feeling  re-established  between  the  law  and 
its  habitual  breakers. 


THE    END 


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